


Another Realm: Arrival

by Katkiller_V



Series: Another Realm [1]
Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alien Culture, Asari Culture, Batarian Culture, Drinking, F/F, F/M, Gang Violence, Illium (Mass Effect), Interspecies Relationship(s), Mystery, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Self-Insert
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-12
Updated: 2015-05-26
Packaged: 2018-03-17 13:22:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 40
Words: 198,947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3530927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katkiller_V/pseuds/Katkiller_V
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>So, I've woken up with a pounding migraine and a million questions, and no answers are in sight. The best I can do is learn to survive as I try to get ready for the invasion that I know is coming. But like everybody knows, Illium is not a safe planet. When all I've got for friends are a jaded mechanic, a bitter matriarch, and a Batarian exile, even survival can prove to be hard.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Arrival

**Author's Note:**

> As so many do, I have to credit Masses to Masses and Mass Vexations for popularizing this genre and being solid reads on their own, and for doing no little inspiration on their own for this story. Because someone will ask, no,the main character's name is not my own, and he is an amalgamation of several people/characters. Another few notes, the main character in this case will not have perfect recall of the games and books. My rule of thumb is: if I have to look it up, he doesn't know it. As a result, he will start to forget things as time passes, and he may even get details wrong. How much this complicates his life will be for us to find out.
> 
> This series was originally (and still is), primarily posted on FF.net. I am going to endeavor to keep it updated here as well to ensure that as many people as possible can read it if they so chose. Thanks to a few faithful readers, it also has a tv tropes page, which can be found here: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/AnotherRealm. Feel free to check it out if you're interested.
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Kat

  ** _Act 1: The Beginning_**

**_Date: 3-30-2180_ **

* * *

  **Chapter 1: The Arrival**

* * *

When I woke up, it was to pain.

Not 'I have a headache' level of pain either, more like 'someone has a rusty piece of rebar and is currently using it to drill slowly into my skull' kind of pain. So, naturally, I groaned aloud and tried to get up, firmly intending on digging some Tylenol out of my suitcase before stumbling into the bathroom for a blisteringly hot shower.

Instead, a pair of firm arms pressed against my chest, and a woman's voice spoke urgently in a language I didn't know as she fought to hold me in place. My eyes snapped open in shock, only to be blocked by a gloved hand before I could see anything besides a blur of light.

"What the hell?"

Well, that was what I tried to say. It came out more of a loud mumble of random syllables than anything else.

"Wh.. zhe he..?"

"Calm down, I'm... gah, not going to hurt you!" The same woman's voice, cold and crisp, and more than a little alarmed, came from somewhere above me.

I wasn't awake enough to fully process what she was saying, and truth be told, my body was operating entirely on reflex by that point. She grunted loudly as my strangely sluggish body attempted to shift, my arms reaching up to try and gain some leverage to get her arms off of me. Now, I'm not the strongest guy in the world, but I'd been a solid wrestler in high school, and I knew how to grapple, but her arms were like steel pillars firmly keeping me in place even as I tried to get some, hell, __any__ leverage.

"I _said_ ," Ozone suddenly filled my nostrils, and every hair on my body felt like it was standing on end, " _ _Calm. Down__ _."_ Even as she said the words it felt like a mattress made of air had been dropped onto my chest. It didn't hurt, but just because it wasn't causing me pain didn't mean it was comfortable. Both of my arms dropped limply to my side, my muscles unable to fight the...whatever it was that was suddenly holding me down.

"Who... you..?" Was all I could get out, doing my best to keep my very real fear and impending panic from my voice.

There was a soft, almost tired sigh, "That is a very, very complicated long story, and one that you will likely not care for."

"In... my hotel... room?" It was getting easier to string the sentences together, while the pain in my head slowly receded. The cool glove over my eyes and forehead had gone from something restraining me to something actually comfortable against my aching skull. Not that I was about to say that. "How?'

There was a long pause before she spoke again, "You are not in your hotel room anymore."

 _ _Huh?__ "Huh?"

Another gentle sigh followed, and then her hand slowly pulled back, making my skull throb in protest. I left my eyes closed for a moment, then carefully opened them to slits. The pale lights definitely weren't the pallid yellow I was used to seeing, and the pristine white of the ceiling was another unusual change. It was obvious that she was telling the truth about me not being in my hotel room anymore at least. Trying not to groan with the effort, I opened my eyes fully and turned to face my... captor?

She was sitting primly in the chair next to me, her eyes staring into my own. Her dress was a resplendent tan and green that complemented her strong figure well, without resorting to exposing an overt amount of skin to do so. To further enhance her statuesque figure, it looked like she'd be easily over six feet tall when standing, and her black gloved hands were folded neatly in her lap in a fashion that struck me as vaguely aristocratic.

All of that, of course, was utterly secondary to the fact that she wasn't human.

She was an Asari.

_An_ __Asari_ _ _._

A freaking Asari was sitting right next to my bed, her body blurred slightly with blue light. It was like looking at an aurora that just happened to be constrained to remaining in place.

__Biotics. She's using biotics to hold me in place._ _

"..Dreaming. Or Nightmare." I slowly but firmly closed my eyes, trying to force myself into the relaxed state that usually served to wake me up from either.

"Neither, I am afraid." Her tone was apologetic, her English smooth and unaccented to my ears. "Again, I am sorry."

"How is... possible?" My eyes opened again, staring at her in confusion... and no small amount of shock. "You're a...an Asari. Fictional. From a video game."

Her head tilted to one side, her eyes widening in an oddly human show of surprise. "You know what I am?"

I stared at her blankly, still suffering as my head continued its slow pounding. I found myself vaguely wishing that she would put a gloved hand back on my forehead. "How am I here?" __Ha-ha, at last an actual sentence!__

She frowned slightly, but instead nodded towards a wall. Following her gaze, my eyes tracked across a sheet covering something on top of a dresser. Something that looked very much like... like a body.

__Oh shit. This..can't be fucking good._ _

"My sister." There was a soft sigh as her eyes dropped to her lap, "Always looking to prove herself. We've been looking for the right person for many years now, and she thought __you__ were the one chosen. When the rest of us disagreed, she took matters into her own hands. Unfortunately... the strain was too much. It is not easy to pull a spirit from one realm to another."

 _ _Yeah.. this cannot possibly be good.__ "I don't suppose.. you could send me back?"

"I am sorry, only she knew the exact moment in time where she found you and brought you here. And as I said, to pull a spirit here is difficult, even when you have located a dimension similar enough to even make the effort. We have... lost many of my kin learning how to even peer between the universes. To push you away would likely drain me of my life, and you could end up anywhere at any point in time." She kept her tone apologetic throughout, and it sounded like she was truly sorry for what had happened.

At least, to me. She wasn't human, who the hell knew if she was actually sorry about it or not.

_Shit, this whole thing could just be a bizarre hallucination brought on by someone spiking the alfredo sauce at that run-down Italian place I had eaten at the night before._

"So... stuck. Here. Family. Friends. Everything I know."

"Left behind." One of her hands reached out to gently touch my shoulder. "We don't know what happens when a spirit is taken from one realm to another. Perhaps... it is as if you were never there at all."

"Or maybe my corpse is cooling in my hotel's bed." I shot back, a bitter anger rising inside of me. Her supportive expression cooled noticeably, and her hand quickly retreated. The combined actions were more than enough to make me feel an asshole, and I winced, stammering out an apology. "I'm sorry, I... just... yeah."

"I believe I understand. I cannot imagine that I would not be upset in your place." Turning slightly, she gazed at what was apparently her sister's shrouded body, "And it cannot help that she is not here to explain herself, why she felt the need to bring you here, even though we know that you are not the one. Although she did at least give you our language."

 _ _So, not only did I just get ripped away from my own freaking reality, I'm a mistake, not even the person they're looking for.__ That bit of information also massively lowered the odds of just a strange drug trip. Usually in one's imagination, you're the center of things, not the accidental discard. __And...wait a second, I'm talking in.. no, I'm freaking__ thinking __in a different language.__

It was a bizarre realization. The words and phrases were flowing as naturally in my thoughts as English. There weren't translations going on in my head, it was.. instinctive. I just __knew__ what it meant, as if I'd never spoken any other language in my entire life. I shifted between the two mentally, quickly counting to ten in English, then again in the other one, trying to wrap my head around what the fuck was happening to me.

"This apartment was hers," The Asari's voice broke me from my swirling thoughts; "I will transfer it to your name, and find someone to help you settle in."

 _ _Ah... seriously? That's what you're worried about right now!?__ "I have questions."

"So do I." She leaned forwards, her eyes narrowing as she regarded me, "You are from another dimension, from the past of another realm, yet you know what I am. How is this?"

"Um… " __Are we really going to have this conversation with her sister's body just laying over there? I didn't mean that we should start twenty questions right this second__ _._ "Shouldn't you… we… you know, do something about…" I weakly waved at the shrouded form. "And.. already? I mean.. I'm still-" _ _Trying to process this.__

She cut me off with a wave of a gloved hand, "Several of my compatriots are on their way, when they arrive, we will… take her home. Now, my question."

"Well… you're uh.. fictional. Made up. From a game."

Her silence spoke volumes, and her blue eyes continued to regard me stonily.

"Ah. I played them, obviously. You're an Asari. There's also Salarians, Turians, Quarians. And Krogan. And there's the Citadel." Her eyes narrowed further as I listed things off, and I licked my dry lips and tried to control my sudden babble attack, "And… seriously, can we you know, do this in a room that doesn't have a body in it?"

"No. What else do you know?"

 _ _Well, a few things from Mass Effect Three would get me a death sentence from your government, not that I'm about to say that. Or even try and think about that if I can help it.__ "Well, your people found the Citadel, and then the Salarians. And you made the Council. Then there was the Rachni wars mess, and the Krogan rebellions. And then the Morning War. And-"

"Morning War?"

 _ _Crap.__ "The Geth Rebellions?"

"Why did you call them that?"

"That's what the Geth call it. I don't think they explain why." __And if they did I missed it. Hell if I had known I was about to be dragged here I would have definitely done a full run through more recently than last year.__ Before she could press further, and to distract myself from the freaking body that I couldn't help but keep noticing, I asked a question of my own, making sure to keep my eyes on hers, "Where am I?"

I got that same cool, calm look for a moment, and then she nodded very slightly, "You are in a suburb of Nos Astra, on Illium." Something of my internal reaction to that world must have shown on my face, "Ah, you are aware of it. No, I do not intend to place you into indentured servitude, though that is an option open to you."

"No." It wasn't difficult to make my voice flat and hard. "I don't differentiate between that and slavery."

"I find the practice distasteful as well." Her mouth crooked into a small smile, "It seems we are taking turns. Very well, are you aware of my Order?"

"You're not a Justicar, and you're not creepy enough to be an Ardat-Yakshi." She started badly at that, her face becoming several shades paler, "And I don't have you pegged as a priestess of Athame either, so I'd have to say no."

"This… _ _game__ , it had ardat-yakshi?"

"Yes. You have the option to hunt and kill one of them, with the aid of a Justicar." __And help several others survive the Reaper invasion, definitely need to make a 'keep to myself' category.__ "That was two questions. What are you going to do with me, and what year is it by the Systems Alliance calendar?"

It took her a moment to recover from my off-hand mention of the Asari's own demons, though she brought up her omni-tool quickly enough. In person it's even odder to look at than in game, with a holographic screen surrounded by the strange circular buttons. For a dedicated keyboard and mouse jockey like myself, it was easy to tell that it was going to be a pain in the ass to learn.

"The year is twenty-one eighty." __That's… three years? Four? Dammit, should have paid more attention to those details.__ _"_ As for you, I do not intend to kill you. As I stated before, it was not your fault what happened. There are a number of options open to you, though we have eliminated the simplest amongst them. I still have some contacts on this world; one of them may be able to help you… adjust, until you can live on your own. Your occupation, what was it?"

"Software engineer." My shoulders rose and fell in a shrug. It was getting a little uncomfortable looking her in the eyes constantly, but the alternative was noticing what is __still__ in the room with us. "It paid well, and it was easy for me. I also studied history as a hobby."

Those flat eyes narrowed yet again, "You have never fought before."

"In a war or combat no. I've done competitive wrestling and was all right at it, and I have fired weapons before." __Now that she brings that up, that's something I'm going to have to change. Thinking conservatively, you've got three years until Eden Prime, maybe a few months until the Battle of the Citadel, and then a month until Shepard dies. Two years for the gap, a few more months for the second game and the extra content. Maybe a year there in total. Then six months until the Reapers knock out the Batarians. Six years, give or take. The last thing I want to be is helpless when__ _that_ _ _happens__ _._ "I'm guessing it will be wise to change that."

"Indeed" She broke eye contact, openly regarding my entire body, "I recommend you work on building yourself up as well. And I seem to have asked a pair of questions once more." Which was, I supposed, an honest opinion. I was of above average height, just a hair short of touching six feet, but my body was built like a rail even when I was in shape, with a metabolism that usually had me eating plenty of food at all hours of the day without gaining a pound. I did work out, but only lightly, more out of habit from my high school days than for any other reason.

__Memo, if you survive the next few hours, get back into real shape._ _

"And you are being fair about it, for which I thank you" I inclined my head politely, returning my mind to our little session, a gesture she seemed to recognize, "If you could, could you tell me the details of one Commander Shepard? Additionally, when you look for someone who could help me, would you please find someone with engineering skills?"

"I will see what I can do about the latter." Her fingers flew over her omni-tool's buttons once again, the orange lights flashing at each 'tap'. "Shepard. Commander, human female from Earth. Assigned to the N7 program, named the Lioness of Elysium for her defense of that world during a pirate assault."

I bit my lip, thinking as furiously as I could in the circumstances. __Focus. There will be time to be upset about…everything…later. Compartmentalize that and move on. What's the play. Standard reaction would probably be to get on the Normandy, and ride that train to glory and friendship and all that stuff. But… not sure yet. I don't have any skills that could help, not right now at least. I've got time, years. I need to start getting ready now if I want to survive, never mind somehow get in with Shepard and the team. That can be revisited when its closer.__

"Is she important?" the calm question broke me from my thoughts.

My head nodded slightly, "She'll be the first human Spectre, in a couple of years, and the center of... well, of everything."

She nodded slowly in return, another twitch of a smile coming to her face, "Thank you. That was a mystery we did not know."

 _ _Why does that give me an ominous feeling?__ "What is your name?"

"You may call me Matriarch."

I raised my eyebrows at that. "Don't trust me with your name?"

"No." _ _Aha, someone is keeping secrets. Well all right then Miss Matriarch, I suppose that's fair, given that I'm not exactly being fully open and honest either__ _._ "There is something coming. Something that this center, this Shepard, will be at the heart of. What is it?"

And there was the million dollar question. I was less surprised that she knew that something was coming and more surprised that we were still talking calmly with her sister's freaking corpse in the background. Unless it wasn't her sister. In which case… a bad feeling began to grow in my gut. "The Reapers. The machines that wiped out the Protheans, and every other civilization every fifty thousand years or so, depending on the rate of evolution."

"Why?"

"Well…" I hedged slightly. Personally I didn't have a problem with the reasoning given in the third game, though I was definitely in the minority there. "According to the final script of the last game, their purpose is to prevent artificial life from killing all organic life, and they do it by blowing everything to hell. They should have come when the Geth became self-aware, but the Protheans were able to sabotage the way they enter the galaxy. The only Reaper to remain behind, as a sentinel I suppose, has been trying to find a way to open the gate on its own since then."

"Does it?"

"In the game, no. That's the first game of three, which is how many questions you asked. Is that really your sister?"

Her lips tugged into that little smile again, "Spiritually perhaps. We were sisters in our order, though not by blood, and I truthfully did not care for her."

_Well that certainly explained why she was so comfortable having our little chat with her like that._

__Wait…__ My always ready paranoid streak stared kicking into full gear as a few things started to add up, __She's way too calm for all this to be right. Sure she didn't care for her, but I would have thought she'd be more squeamish about this entire affair__ _._

I took a stab in the dark with my second question, "Bringing me here… was it really an accident?"

The little smile faded as quickly as it came. "In a way. You were selected at random, so by technicality, you are here by accident, and through no fault of your own." Some of my increasing worry must have begun to show on my face because she continued on rather rapidly from there, "Please relax, I was being honest with you when I stated that I do not intend to kill you or otherwise harm you. You may not be the one chosen to aid the Center, this Shepard, but you are the one who may help us find him or her."

"Uh, my inter-dimensional scrying abilities are a bit rusty you know." Despite her reassurances, I wasn't exactly feeling relieved. While she may not have lied to me directly, she was definitely saying as little as she thought she could get away with, and making it increasingly obvious that she was doing so. "Maybe if I know what you were looking for?"

The Matriarch's smile returned, and she seemed to smother a chuckle at my response, "All I desire from you is the information you are already providing. You cannot be the one to aid the Center, because you already believe you know the ending. The one we seek must not have such preconceptions, so that they are free to do as they will."

 _ _Oh.__ "So…"I puzzled through that for a moment, "So you're saying, because I played the final game, I can't help Shepard, because everything I'm doing would lead to the ending that I've already seen. You want someone to help her make something new, unrelated, hopefully better. More cheerful. Less Citadel exploding."

Her eyes widened slightly at the last. "The Citadel-"

I waved a hand vaguely, wincing as the motion brought my eyes back to the corpse still contentedly cooling in the corner, "Everyone aboard was long dead anyways, and not pleasantly. I can understand wanting to avoid that bit."

Part of me took a little perverse thrill at the way she blanched again, her jaw shifting. Even as hard as this Matriach seemed to be, it would appear that the games had the Asari pegged right in being horrified at that level of death and destruction. Which brought up something else…"She brought me here, and you can look into other dimensions, right?"

"Yes."

My frown deepened as I worked my way through that, "Is it possible, theoretically, that a human could do the same? That someone from my dimension could have watched yours, and made the game based on that? " _ _In which case we might be looking at an inevitability paradox and all kinds of a mess.. or maybe they're just looking at another one?__ _ _Dammit, this infinite universes thing is even worse to think about when it actually affects you.__

"Anything is possible I suppose, although I find that to be doubtful." She brought a hand up slightly, "Not that I am disparaging your species, but even for myself, with centuries of preparation, the act of merely looking is exhausting. And as my compatriot proved, attempting to do more than look can be damaging. I would put such thoughts out of your mind. It is likely we will never know why our realm is a… work… of fiction in yours."

"Did she really die pulling me here?'

There was a slight pause before she responded, "She still breathed when I arrived, but her spirit had already gone to Athame."

_Ah._

Any further conversation was cut off when a soft knock at the door sounded off. Matriarch, __Damn it's going to get old just calling her that__ _,_ waved her omni-tool in its general direction, her fingers tapping away as she did so. It opened without a sound, revealing a pair of similarly dressed alien women, though both look far younger than her.

__Asexual aliens technically, not women_ _ _. The difference was technical, sure, but I had a bad feeling that if I kept thinking of them as human females I'd end up being burned in one way or another._

One of them gasped at the sight of the shroud, and again when she caught sight of me sitting on the bed. The other just shook her head and rolled her eyes.

"Of course she did." It was the latter that spoke, her tone irritated, "One little mention that we might want to __think__ about __sometime__ bringing someone here to help us make sense of what we've seen, and she runs off and drags a human here."

"Sisters." The Matriarch rose to her feet, "This is…"

I sighed as she paused. "At least I asked __your__ name. Call me Cieran. Cieran Kean." A good family name, especially considering I was probably the only Kean around now. The compartment where I'd buried my panic, depression, and fear shook within my skull. Firmly ignoring it, I nodded respectfully to the new arrivals, "Nice to meet you."

"Whatever." __Oh yeah, let's hope I'm not dealing with you for the next few years__ _._ "I'll take care of it." Without another word to any of us, and ignoring her still stunned companion, she moved into the room and heaved the body up onto her shoulder in a single smooth motion. The sight of a pale, blue arm dangling from beneath the cloth was enough to roll my gut, and I hurriedly looked away. "You going to deal with him?"

The Matriarch's tone was disapproving, "I will be helping him. He gave me what we needed, and it was not by his choice that he was brought here. Besides," her face turns back towards me, her lips set into a thin line as her eyes flashed, "I do not believe he would be so stupid as to reveal us."

I bit back a sarcastic response with the very real terror that I got from that expression, "No, of course not."

All that earned me was a grunt, and then the rude one with the disturbing arm dangling from over her shoulder is gone.

"By the goddess…"

"Are you all right, sister?" There's enough of a gentle emphasis on the last word that I can pick it up, though what it was supposed to imply I had no idea.

_Probably just reminding her not to slip up and give me names or something._

"I'm..." The smaller, younger Asari swallowed. "I'm all right, honored Matriarch."

"If you could," Her tone remained gentle, "Please contact Trena T'laria for me, and ask her to come here tonight. Tell her.. that I need her to repay the favor she owes me. You should have her information."

"Yes… yes." Nodding thankfully, she almost tripped over her own feet as she practically sprinted out the door, slapping a panel somewhere to close it behind her.

"Trena T'laria?"

"The daughter of one of my old friends, though not a member of our order. She is a quality mechanic, and has enough commando training to help you in that regard as well." Turning, she regarded me frankly, "You know much about us, though I am guessing your knowledge is not complete."

"I know the story, generally, but," I shrugged, "The games weren't big on the basics of living in this century. I have no idea how to work an omni-tool or go shopping or…" my expression twisted into a grimace as I began to fully realize how pathetic I currently was, "anything really."

The honesty earned me a slight nod at least, then she began to speak more quickly, "You know your name, and some things. That is enough. I found you here, being attacked by an Ardat-yakshi, and killed her just as she began to meld with you. Unfortunately I was not in time to prevent damage to your mind, though my intervention did save your life."

 _Well... that was probably better than anything I could have come up with,_ "I'm guessing that's possible?"

A slight shrug of one shoulder, with her head tilting in what must be an Asari gesture of some kind, "I am a Matriarch, and one whom she owes much. She will believe me."

"Oh. Well, all right then." _At least it was simple enough that I wouldn't have to worry about keeping my story straight._

"I must take my leave, for a time." Not bothering to wait for me to respond, she rose in a smooth motion, then turned to make her way towards the door, "I will return with human food in a few hours. In the meantime, I suggest you see what you can learn on your own."

"Wait, what about-" She was out the door before I could even finish, leaving me staring at nothing in particular.

__Thanks for nothing_ _ __bitch..._ _

Without the distraction of conversation, the reality of what was apparently happening to me began to sink in once more.

__Well then Cieran_ _ _._ __Welcome to your new life. No friends. No family. No money. Just a dead woman's apartment and a less than stable alien woman that dragged you across dimension for company. No reason to be depressed, not even a little._ _

A breathy laugh at my own mental sarcasm is out before I could stop it, and I could feel the

hyperventilation threatening to set in even as I struggled to maintain my calm.

__No… no, control. Control, compartmentalize, and move on. There will be time to angst over the situation later, when you can actually stand on your own feet._ _

Nodding firmly to myself, I closed my eyes and did my best to focus on my breathing. It took several minutes before my hands were still enough that I felt comfortable planning out the next few hours of my life.

__All right. Goals. Goals are important. Computers. Kitchen. Bathroom. Figure out how to get the simple things working first, so you don't need a nursemaid at the very least._ _

With that plan in mind, I slowly let my eyes open, nodded once more, and started exploring my new home.

* * *

**Next up is Chapter 2: The Deal**

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Fun Facts: Pronunciation
> 
> Cieran Kean → Kie-ran Keen  
> Trena T'laria → Tren-ah Ti Lahr-ee-ah


	2. The Deal

**Chapter 2: The Deal**

* * *

"So, a genuine survivor of a demon of the night winds." My new companion, Trena T'laria apparently, peered at me with interest across the small table, "You sure you don't remember any of it?"

I shrugged, more than a little uncomfortable at her scrutiny, and did my best to remember what the old hag had told me in her very brief afternoon visit. "Just... fragments. Like a scream in my head. The… Matriarch said that it was probably because she killed her while we were melded."

Her body shuddered slightly, "Ugh. Well, you're still sane at least, I've heard stories about people who've broken down entirely when something like that happens, even without one of those… _things_ involved."

Nodding vaguely, my eyes continued to take her in. She was about as far from the in-game depictions of the Asari as was possible. Short, stocky without being fat, obviously muscled, and her clothes were complete with stains of a dozen different colors from whatever she was working on during the day. Her skin was the usual blue, though strangely devoid of the tattoos and markings I was expecting. It was hard to remember that there was a civilization beyond what you see in the game, that there has to be Asari mechanics and farmers, cashiers and fast food workers. That they all weren't based on the same little set of in game models.

_I guess I'm going to have to get used to things like that, given that I'm probably going to be stuck on Illium for god knows how long._

So taken in with my musings, I almost missed what she said next, "So, you say you think you were an engineer?"

"Well, I think. It's..." I bit my lip slightly, trying to act like I was rifling through memories. "Even with the Matriarch's help it's hard. I think I was a programmer…that sounds right, mostly."

"Hmm." There's a slurping sound as she brought some of the strange noodles to her lips and virtually inhaled them. "I can work with that. Been needing as assistant around the shop anyways, if you're up for it."

"I'm game." _Not like I have a choice._ Raising my own two pronged fork-thing, I eagerly bit onto meat that she said was some kind of fish. I was hungry enough to not care what it actually tasted like, but made a mental note to find some nearby restaurants with human food, if there was any. And that was assuming that I could trust any of the aliens on planet to know what _real_ human food actually was. The Matriarch's idea of a human lunch had been bread. With butter. Nothing else. She'd even been confused as to my reaction to her 'meal'. "Apparently my other option is a contract, and I remember enough to want nothing to do with that."

Her utensil rose to her brow in a salute, "I actually live in this complex as well, and I'll pay you enough to let you keep this place, so you won't have to worry about that. Faster you learn, the more I'll give you. Don't learn fast enough or if you've got no skill though, I'm cutting you loose, old debts or no. Deal?"

My own fork, another piece of fish stabbed onto it, rose in reply, "Deal, Miss T'laria."

"Trena, if you please." She gave me a little grin, "Still a Matron. And you're Cie."

"Cieran." I corrected. "Cieran Kean. Either full first or last name please."

"I'm your employer now, I can call you whatever I want, ape."

Her tone was amused and light, and I felt safe in replying in kind, "But of course oh scaled one. You are not offended that I am eating your cousin, are you?"

"Never liked him anyways."

I couldn't help but chuckle at that, and was rewarded with one from her as well.

 _How strange is it that here I am, another dimension removed from home, bantering sarcasm with an Asari as if she was an old friend, like nothing unusual has happened to me in the last day_.. Of course, the moment _that_ hit me the locked box in the back of my head started shuddering, threatening to overwhelm me once again. I closed my eyes as she resumed eating, focusing my mind entirely on the feeling of the utensil in my hand.

_No. Break down later. Focus on the now._

I blew out a long breath before viciously stabbing a bit of food. "So, what will I be doing then?"

"Well, we'll start with some basic courses to get your mind back in order. Engineering and programming for beginners, that kind of thing, try and shake some memories loose. I'll send that to you to work on from here. Get that down and you can come with to my shop and I'll put you to work assisting me." She did what was apparently a little Asari version of a shrug, her head tilting in time with a shoulder rising, "People bring in stuff and I fix it. Aircars, omni-tools, sometimes they have me do their extranet pages, their weapons... just about anything really."

"Cool." It was a bit of a mumble around another piece of meat, and she gave me another grin. "Sounds interesting at least." _And useful._

She did the little shrug thing again, noisily inhaling another noodle. "And you need to work on your speech. You sound like you're from an old human vid, and a badly translated one at that. She must have really done a number on your head... Though your accent sounds local."

I winced slightly and shrugged. "Apparently."

"You aren't going to need help just living here are you?" Her mouth twitched into a smile again, "Not going to set the place on fire? Or start relieving yourself in the corner like those mog things?"

"Dog." I corrected, taking a pause to wolf down another bite of the pasta, "And I'm not _completely_ hopeless." It had taken me a while, with plenty of thankfully hidden embarrassment, to work out how to use the alien bathroom. And I still had no idea what half of the unlabeled buttons on the oven did, but at least I knew how to turn the thing on and off. About the only thing it that hadn't taken me at least fifteen minutes to figure out had been the refrigerator and its attached freezer, which were both typical enough on the inside, even if they were filled with a dead woman's food. The one good thing to come of the afternoon had been realizing that whatever had zapped the Asari language into my brain had also brought along the ability to read it.

"Just mostly hopeless." Trena nosily slurped down another noodle, before tossing the two pronged fork onto her plate with a clatter, "Well, it's early enough, come on."

I blinked, another noodle halfway to my mouth, "Huh?"

Aquamarine eyes rolled as she sighed, "If you're going to live here, you need to know where things are, and since I would rather get some sleep tonight, let's get it the fuck out of the way."

"Ah." Trying not to choke on my last bit of food, and tossing my fork onto its own plate, I slid to my feet. "So, um, is there a key for this place? The ah, Matriarch wasn't really.."

Trena gave me a very masculine sounding snort, "Keen on explanations, I know. Come on, we'll get it coded to you, should have been reset by now."

Which, thankfully, it was. A quick tutorial on resetting the apartment's password, and adding a hand-print scan took just a few minutes. After that, we were off.

The city was... well, _different._ The building my apartment was in was five stories tall, with my place on the top floor. Unlike what I was used to though, the apartment doors opened directly into a broad walkway, with dozen ramps heading both up and down easily in sight. And of course, even with the sun setting, there were Asari everywhere. Tallish ones, plenty of short ones, thin ones, muscled ones... Some wearing clothing so skimpy it would barely qualify as nightwear, others in the business attire often seen in the games, and yet more in what I was assuming were casual clothes. Sky cars were blurring past overhead, most streaming to and from the massive towers in the far distance, the dull roar of their engines nearly drowning out the quiet murmur of a thousand voices speaking.

"Wow." I breathed the word, trying to stare at everything at the same time.

"Welcome to our little corner of Nos Astra: the River District." A firm arm dragged me over to the railing, while another waved expansively at everything in sight, "Not the best place, but it's better than a kick in the quad, that's for sure."

"Uh-huh." It was all I could do to nod as she spoke, still trying to process everything attacking my senses. I suddenly have no doubts at all as to the game's assertion that the Asari were a social species, the amount of them just _talking_ with each other as they walked past us or below us or across the way from us was fucking staggering.

And... I also rather realized that I was the only human in sight. Scratch that, I was the only non-Asari in sight.

"Figured it would be better to get you used to it now." My companion apparently noticed my sudden discomfort, "Not many aliens in this part of town."

"Ah... I see." It wasn't hard not to be ridiculously self-conscious as more than a few of the of the passers-by were not quite _staring_ at me. _So this is what it feels like to be an animal in a zoo._

She laughed as I sort of hunched in on myself, and again took one of my elbows with her hand, "Come on, I'll keep 'em at bay for you."

Not terribly assured, I let her guide me along the footpath as she showed me the local sights.

Once you got past the fact that everyone in sight wasn't human, and the preference towards silver-blue, curving architecture, it honestly felt like any other city. There were a few sit-down restaurants, about twice as many fast food joints, and a wide variety of stores. Trena took the time to point out which ones were fairly well run where I wouldn't get ripped off, and then the ones I should avoid for a variety of reasons.

"Don't go in there, she's not a fan of humans."

"Avoid this one, head two floors down instead unless you want to just hand your money to the Eclipse."

"This one's not bad, just try not to sleep with the waitress. She's... clingy."

We did duck into a local marketplace, and she quietly explained how to work paying for things when I sheepishly admitted that I had no idea. Apparently the Matriarch had already opened an account in my name, and deposited a modest sum there. From what Trena told me later, it was enough for the first month of rent plus food, with enough left over to pick up some new clothes and basic equipment if I was stingy about it.

Eventually we made our way back to our building, my new boss making sure that I was able to get back into my own apartment before leaving for the night.

I managed to heat up what was left of dinner without burning myself or destroying anything, which I took as a win, before heading to the bedroom. I'd initially shuddered at the idea of sleeping on a dead woman's bed, but that was before I'd sat on the couch. Any thoughts of sleeping on _that_ thing had vanished within the first few minutes.

_Damn thing must have been designed for a Krogan or something._

The first night was.. hard. Can't really lie about that. Everything that I'd managed to bottle up during the day washed over me, the locks inside of my head breaking open. More than that.. well, that's for me to keep to myself.

The first week of my new life was hectic as hell... in a good way. I was too busy to break down further, and sleep became a luxury as I spent all of my time glued to my extranet terminal, frantically tearing through the different sites that Trena had sent me.

Thankfully, the basics of programming were still familiar enough, though the syntax that the Asari use was annoying as hell. Still, the old adage about ninety percent of all problems having already been solved seemed more like ninety nine percent. It was practically trivial to pick up a dozen useful scripts with an hour or two of work, and with another few hours of coding I finally managed to get a reasonable amount of control over my own home. I'd loaded a few more that I thought would be helpful in the future into my omni-tool, mostly synchronization routines for various motors along with a few eezo monitors.

_And the fact that command line work is considered esoteric is thoroughly amusing._

While the programming flowed easily, the physical engineering remained a massive hurdle to get over. I'd never really been a gearhead, mostly leaving that to my friends when I needed something fixed, so I had to spend twice as much time to make sure that I got it straight. It didn't help that Trena hadn't been exaggerating when she said that she fixed what people brought her. I had links for everything from batarian firearms (durable and simple, if underpowered) to asari car engines (over reliant on element zero and complicated as fuck).

Although just how much work I was going to have didn't really become clear until the third day, when I was checking over common problems for personal shield belts. I'd just finished going over the most popular Salarian design, and flicked to a Turian model only to find that they had almost nothing in common with one another. A few minutes more of checking had revealed that every other species' designs were almost as different.

_Suddenly I have a whole new respect for Tali and her people._

Honestly most of what I was able to learn came from a collection of Quarian articles. I had no idea where Trena had found them, but I'd made sure to save them to my new omni-tool to ensure that I had them on me at all times.

"Yeah, you can learn a lot from the bucket heads." Trena had come over six days after my arrival, and it was the first time I'd seen her in the flesh since that initial day. We'd talked a bit over our omni-tools, but she'd largely trusted me to do my own thing. As before, she was in what I was guessing were her work clothes, and I idly wondered if the chair was going to get stained. "Lot of people look down on them, but trust me, no one can make tech dance like they can."

"So I should be worried about a Quarian pilgrim replacing me?" I checked to make sure the ketchup on my burger, apparently made of an Illium version of a manatee, was sufficient before taking a huge bite. There weren't all that many humans around, but thankfully some human food at least had managed to infiltrate Asari cuisine. Burgers and Gyros were both hugely popular in the River District, though I was led to believe that Indian cuisine dominated Nos Astra proper.

She snorted, waving her own sandwich as she spoke, "Hardly. Most of them know to avoid Illium, not exactly a friendly place."

"Doesn't sound like many are for them."

An Asai shrug accompanied her words. "True enough."

"So," I paused as I took another bite, working my way through it before I spoke again, "You going to test me or anything, or just tell me when to show up?"

"You get another week of poking around, you'll get your first paycheck after. I owe the Matriarch that much at least." She took a long pull of demon juice, which actually wasn't alcoholic but was apparently rumored to be filled with addictive substances, along with enough caffeine to give you a heart-attack, "After that I'll expect you ready and waiting when I stop by in the morning, we can head to my shop together."

"Sounds fair." And mildly nerve-wracking. _No pressure Cieran, just one more week to get ready before you get the chance to blow this. Somehow I doubt that the Matriarch will show up to give you another chance somewhere else. You'll probably get stuck being indentured and ending up a janitor somewhere... or worse._ "Mind telling me what you're working on right now? So I can get a good idea."

"Why not?" After that she followed up by telling me all about her last week, which had apparently been fairly slow. A few extranet pages had been setup for a Batarian restaurant in a nearby district seemed simple enough, and I was pretty sure I managed to impress her with my observations on her coding. She'd also had to fix some rich girl's speeder after she slammed it into a building on a red-sand trip, which sounded like an ongoing project.

"I'll be lucky to get everything back in place before you start." Her voice was an irritated growl at the thought of the car, "And of course she's a pureblood from the Citadel, so her parents barely want anything to do with her. Getting enough money just to afford the parts I need is like.. what do you humans say, like pulling teeth? Athame's tits, I'll be lucky to make any credits at all on it. Should have told her to find someone else."

I grunted, shaking my head in sympathy. "That a common problem?"

"Unwanted kids slamming cars into skyscrapers?" She chuckled, "Not exactly. Purebloods ostracizing their own children? Yeah, but that's mostly limited the big shots. Most of us in the lower classes are thrilled just to have children, never-mind who the father is. Course, sometimes that bites us in the ass, but that's life on Illium for you. Speaking of life here, I don't suppose you've found any weapons laying around?"

 _From the way you say that, it sounds like I need one._ "Nope."

"Damn. I'll grab one of my back-ups from the shop. This is one of the safer districts, but the Eclipse and the True Sons are going at it in the manufacturing zone."

I licked my lips slightly, not liking the sound of that at all. "I take it that's nearby?"

Trena gave me a little Asari shrug, "It's not far, that's for sure. I was planning on taking tomorrow off anyway, I'll bring you over to my place and put you through your paces. Paperwork is basically just a permit we have to mail in, Matriarch probably already did that but we can check to make sure."

Which was something. I'd been worried about having to both get a weapon and obtain whatever license was needed. But then again, this was Illium, I probably shouldn't have bothered being concerned. Hell, as long as I didn't shoot anything, I could probably have walked around carrying a missile launcher and not really have been bothered by anyone.

We talked a bit more, and I couldn't help but smile as she complained about her favorite clawball team getting viciously demolished in their season opener. There was a brief spec of pain as I recalled countless similar discussions with my friends back home, arguing before hockey games, or debating about the upcoming football seasons with my father.

Eventually we wound down, Trena heading out to her own place after telling me to make sure that I was dressed my mid-morning, while I started cleaning up the remains of our meal. Anyone who thought that Asari were dainty, elegant creatures had apparently never had to clean up after Trena T'laria eating.

_Seriously.. how much of it did she actually manage to eat, and how much ended up on the floor?_

I was debating about whether or not to risk trying to use something labeled as a 'Sonic Cleaner – for all your domestic messes!' when there was a knock at my door.

Now, all things considered, I usually dislike it when unexpected company arrives. When I've woken up in an alternate universe on a fairly dangerous planet, with no weapon and no training, I had to struggle against the anxiety that reared up.

Said anxiety didn't exactly go away when the voice carried over the intercom, "It's the Matriarch, Kean. We have something to discuss, and I would rather not have to destroy your door to get in. That would lead to awkward questions."

_I'm sure._

Still, I checked the vid-screen before opening the door, though how useful that was I didn't really know. It only covered the area right in front of the door, meaning there could have been people lingering on either side and I'd have no idea they were even there.

_Memo, get some more cameras in place there when you figure out how to do that._

"Ah, I see from the debris that Trena was here. She never could learn proper manners.. such a shame really." She brushed past me the moment the door slid open, barely even acknowledging my presence. Her dress was far more formal this time, something closer to what you saw Benezia in. Layers of black and gray cloth hid her body and legs from view, with more thin black leather keeping any skin from showing outside of her face. "Now, I believe that this will be the last time that we ever speak, for both of our sakes."

I blinked slowly and frowned, following her towards the cramped living room after making sure the entrance was shut and locked, "For both our sakes? You're saying you're in as much danger as I am? And why would I be in danger of us talking?"

"Danger is perhaps an overstatement, let us say instead it would cause complications if we continued to associate. A Matriarch should not be spending all of her time doting upon a single human, it would bring attention to us that, I believe, we would both rather avoid." She gracefully lowered herself onto the abomination of a couch, appearing perfectly content. "Now, there are a few final ground rules to cover, and a small selection of questions that I should have asked before."

I motioned for her to continue, moving to lean against the wall rather than sit.

"First, a question. You are positive that it is this human woman, this Shepard, that will be the key to the future?"

"Yes."

Her eyes narrowed slightly, "You must be convinced without a doubt."

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes at her, "I am."

"Good. You must have nothing to do with her, or her crew."

Not going to lie, that one caught me off-guard. "Huh? Why?"

"Because the true chosen one must join her on her quest. I cannot allow you to interfere." Great, rub in the fact that I'm the test-dummy why don't you. "Did she ever journey to Illium? You said you knew of it."

"By reputation." I waved her concerns away, lying my ass off as I did so. "She'll end up recruiting a Justicar who compares Omega and Illium to one another."

She nodded slowly, "In that case you will be able to remain here for the duration, should you wish. Although that does bring me to the next rule, as it were. You will not meld with any Asari."

 _No sex with the natives, got it. At least I can understand this one._ "I can't imagine they'd take seeing my memories very well."

"No, I doubt very much that any explanation you could come up with would suffice in that situation. To that end, I have already spent my last favor for you. You will shortly receive a certificate from a prestigious medical facility, indicating you suffer from a rare condition known as Floating Mind syndrome." My complete confusion must have shown, because she went on to explain. "It's a side-effect from a forced melding, a rape if you will. The victim's mind is damaged by the unwanted intrusion, and reacts viciously to defend itself against further attempts. Unfortunately, this usually leads to more damage to the victim, often leaving them in a comatose state for weeks or even months. It makes bonding extremely difficult and dangerous, and can take years for a member of your species to overcome."

I have no idea why it had never occurred to me that something like rape could exist amongst the Asari. Probably my own natural bias as a male human showing through, although didn't really make it any better. Come to think of it, it would be an even more brutal violation to hem, having their mind itself invaded and their memories ransacked... I shuddered as my stomach churned.

"If you are.. approached, you can politely decline and tell them of your condition. Most of my people will be extremely sympathetic upon learning of it."

Great. So not only was I the only human to be found in walking distance, but I was the poor, crippled human they couldn't even sleep with.

_Although, maybe I could use that sympathy a bit.. worth considering at any rate._

"I suppose I should thank you for that, but I don't suppose you'll be willing to answer some questions I have in return?"

"That would entirely depend on what you ask."

I bit my lip slightly as I nodded, "I'm guessing you won't tell me anything about your order, or just who this chosen one is?"

"Your guess is correct."

 _Figures._ "What happens if I run into Shepard, or her one of her crew? Not on purpose mind you, but I have no idea where most of them are before or between the games."

Her eyes narrowed slightly, but she inclined her head gracefully all the same. "In that case I would have you avoid them as soon as is politely possible. That would be the same for the Chosen One. I am sure you will be able to deduce who they are once they events are in motion, and I would rather they avoid the temptation to.. bond with someone with similar experiences."

 _Well aren't you the nice little puppet master._ "Yeah.. fine. I've got a good idea of what you'll do to me if I don't."

"As you humans say, I shall leave it to your imagination."

At the time, I was suitably shaken by the implied threat of a very painful death, but if I'd known just was coming in the following weeks, I'd have considered it par for the course.

* * *

**Next up is Chapter 3: The Life**

* * *

**Author's Fun Facts: The River District**

_The River District is one of the greater suburbs of Nos Astra proper, laying further inland than the coastal city (stretching between the two main rivers that feed into the ocean nearby). It's roughly a middle class type of place, but has some worse off areas near the Manufacturing District (which is less of a city and more of an industrial zone stretching north)._

_The Western Reaches are further inland, but still within the Nos Astra urban area, with Khar'shan Minor (an enclave of Batarian exiles) sandwiched between the Reaches and the River District. The next largest city after Nos Astra is Nos Irrail, located on the far side of the local ocean, and is effectively run by the Eclipse._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More early arrival and setup material here, introducing the next major original character in Trena T'laria, jack of all trades mechanic. I wanted to get away from the typical Asari mold for her, and thought a short, buff, grease-monkey was about as far a cry from Liara or even Samara as you could get. We'll get into why she's like that and who her parents are later.
> 
> The major ball of the first arc will start rolling in the next chapter, now that we have the basics out of the way. I will be following Victoria's three-arcs per story mold, with a bit of stretch time in between the arcs, so expect a pleasant variety of things to happen over the course of this fic.
> 
> The chapter names will of course have something to do with what's in that chapter, so hopefully people can have some fun speculating on what it will be about :)
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."


	3. The Life

**Chapter 3: The Life**

* * *

I was only on Illium for a month before I took my first life. I suppose that made me a bit of a late bloomer, all things considered.

The few weeks after my second, and what I had sincerely hoped would be the last, meeting with the Matriarch had passed by in a mild blur. I'd started working full time at Trena's shop, which amounted to close to fifty hours standard hours a week. I wasn't really sure how that would have translated into Terran hours, but it definitely felt like a full schedule.

Her shop was a fairly nice structure, basically a small warehouse a bit bigger than most auto repair joints on Earth. She was vague about how she'd gotten it, but I didn't really bother asking that many questions. It was downriver, about a ten minute speeder ride from our apartment complex, and loomed over a scalp-care salon and a restaurant that was currently being renovated.

Thankfully, Trena had proved to be a fairly laid back boss, so long as I got what I needed to get done completed. I wasn't sure how much of it was sympathy for my supposed circumstances and how much was the Matriarch's own request, but we did start spending more time together outside of work. At first we mostly talked about what we were doing about our different customers and various ideas she had had, but that only lasted a week before I couldn't take it anymore and firmly imposed a rule of my own: Work stays in the shop.

To my surprise she'd laughed it off, slapping me on the back before changing the topic to clawball.

The job itself had proved to be interesting enough on its own, which I was thankful for. People brought in things or contacted her by mail, and we fixed what needed fixing or setup whatever page needed setting up. I mostly got stuck doing the latter, assisting her with the more mechanical tasks on and off. Thankfully, most of what we had to work on was Asari designed and built, so I could at least focus my attentions there, though we did get a good amount of Batarian equipment in.

"Next week I'll take you down to visit Shaaryak. He's a friend of mine, runs a junkyard and some other things over in Khar'shan Minor." She chuckled at the blank look on my face, "That's the local name for the Batarian colony down river. He's the closest thing they've got to a leader. Bit of a tit at times, but he's a good third of my income."

I blew out a slow whistle, leaning back in my chair. We were basically done for the day, she'd already shut the doors and killed the exterior signs. I was waiting for my console to finish compiling some code while she finished putting parts back into the speeder she'd spent all day upgrading. "Sounds like a local big-shot then."

"He can be." She grunted as her hands slammed the hood down. "But mostly he sticks to his little corner. So long as you leave his people out of it he doesn't really care what happens outside."

Which didn't really sound much like a Batarian criminal, but then again they had hardly been a focal point. "He have problems with the Eclipse?"

"A bit. They keep trying to put down the True Sons, but he won't help either of them outright. Plus he's supposed to have some serious pull out in the Terminus, apparently his brother is some Omega big-shot, and he's got a lot of contacts back in the Hegemony. That gives him a bit of leverage."

The True Sons were a gang with dreams of turning into the fourth big mercenary group. They would have had a better chance at making those ideas into reality if they also weren't violently anti-Asari. They stuck mostly to the slums and other downtrodden areas, recruiting from smaller gangs so they could keep up enough members to fight off the Eclipse and whatever local security forces actually tried to put them down.

They'd have probably had an easier time if they'd tried to expand on some other world, but for all its ugliness, Illium was still an Asari planet. The one time they'd tried a mass push to expand their territory into Nos Astra itself they'd gotten hammered by not only the Eclipse and the cops, but better than a dozen minor Asari led gangs that had seriously torn into them. By the time the turf war had ended they'd lost better than a third of their territory and were correspondingly desperate.

Desperate enough to try and rob a shop in fact.

The gunshot that blew the door control panel apart was shockingly loud, and I could only gape as a booted foot slammed the door open.

I had the briefest glimpse of a Batarian in ill-fitting clothing getting ready to charge in before the door reversed direction. There was a deep bellow of pain echoed by several bodies slamming violently against one another, drawing more shouts and curses.

"Get over here now!" Trena's voice had gone flat and hard, and I was up and running towards her before I even realized I was doing so. The biotic aurora continued to shifted around her as she focused on holding the door shut, her hands automatically drawing her pistol from her belt. "And draw your damned gun!"

My hands fumbled at my own belt before finding the weapon, and I almost dropped the thing as I slid the last few feet to the cover of the speeder. It was a little Asari sub-machine gun, built along the same lines as a Tempest except curvier. Trena had given it to me as a gift, preferring her new heavy pistol. It looked like an Acolyte that had been crossed with a Carnifex, and apparently hit just as hard as the latter.

"Ok.. ah.. what are.. what.." I could barely get the words out, my first experience in an actual life or death situation not exactly what I thought it would be. I had no armor, no shields, and no idea of what was going on except for the fact that people were trying to kill me.

A blue hand seized my shirt, jerking me forwards so that she could glare at me from just a few inches away. "Turn your safety off, when they come back in, you shoot them. Got it?"

"Y-yeah." I managed to secure the weapon in both hands, careful to keep my finger alongside the trigger rather than on it.

Anything else she was going to say was drowned out by something exploding against our door. Whatever biotic power she was using to hold it shut flickered then died as it was flung open yet again.

The same Batarian was in the lead, blood dribbling down from a cut on his broad forehead, with his needle-like teeth on full display as he swept his shotgun from left to right.

Which was the exact wrong order to do things. We were on the far right, and he had started his sweep from where I had been less than a minute before.

Trena shot before I could even move my finger, her monster pistol seemingly making my ears bleed as it barked.

The first round slammed into a shield, drawing what sounded like a foul oath from our guest. But he didn't even make it another step before the next metallic grain of sand ripped right through his weakened defenses and into his bottom-left eye. As if not noticing the fact that his brains were now decorating the floor behind him, he managed two long steps forwards before dropping limply.

The entire event took maybe three seconds.

Two more forms were shoving their way into the room behind him, and it felt like I had a lifetime to look at them even as I turned. One was another Batarian, wearing bulging clothes that might have concealed armor, or just been cheap and ill-fitting. His face was decorated in tattoos proclaiming his gang allegiance, and there was a shotgun clutched tightly in both hands.

Right on his heels was a slim Salarian, his wide eyes flicking to the corpse of their leader and then to Trena and I. Not hesitating for a moment, and moving faster than I would have thought possible, he spun in place, moving to raise his own pistol in our direction.

But even though he was fast, I already had my weapon more or less aimed right at him. Desperately trying remember everything from every game I've ever played and every basic lesson on weaponry that Trena had managed to pound into my head, I slid my finger onto the trigger and gently pulled. The little gun roared on full auto, and my thin muscles strained as I struggled against the weapon's pull.

Whatever shields that the Salarian had were apparently as cheap as his dead friend's. My gun tore through them in the first dozen shots or so, and then there was a line of green blood spraying into the air as the rounds tracked from his sternum up and to the right. I quickly let go on the trigger, watching as the body crumpled, the wide mouth open in pain and shock.

As I stared at the body, I was vaguely aware of the Batarian crying out in pain as pistol shots tore through his own weak barriers, moments before his weapon was ripped from his hands by a biotic throw. Still stunned at what I had just done, all I could do was watch as Trena rose from her crouch, stalking towards the stumbling alien nearly twice her size. She regarded him coldly as she did, and he staggered backwards a few steps as he brought his hands upwards in surrender.

She nodded slowly, and then before he or I could react, her aim dropped and she put a round each into his knees.

His scream was probably loud enough to wake any neighbors we had, assuming the gunshots had not already done so.

"Cieran?"

Then again, did we even have any neighbors? This was pretty much a business only area, and I was pretty sure we were open the latest.

"Cieran!"

That was probably why these guys had tried to rob us. Or kill us. Or robs us then kill us. Wait, why rob us before killing us? It would make more sense to kill us and then rob us. Unless they were worried about the local police, in which case the other way around would work.

Pain suddenly rocketed across my face as a blue hand whipped across it.

"Snap out of it!"

"S-sorry!" It was hard to gasp that out, and I belatedly realized that my lungs were screaming at my brain that I needed to breathe. The tightness of my chest eased somewhat as delicious oxygen began to reach my system, and I tried not to put my hands on my knees as I gulped at the air

"It's all right," Her hand gently reached up to touch my shoulder, though I noticed that she was keeping half an eye on the still wailing survivor. "Just put the gun on the car, and breathe."

_Right. The gun. Probably shut put that down._

It was harder than I thought to get my fingers to let it go, and I had to focus much more on the simple process than I should have needed to.

_Shock? Is that what this is?_

I managed to get the gun onto the car, and promptly put my hands on either side of it to keep myself upright. Whatever adrenaline that had been roaring through my system was apparently long gone, because my hands and legs were trembling.

_Wow... you're handling this real well Cieran._

"Stay there. I've got him covered." Trena was apparently still worried about me, and about our still breathing guest, though I didn't think she really needed to concern herself with him. He was too busy sobbing openly and clutching at his shattered legs to do anything dangerous. With a few moments to actually look at him, he seemed... young. He had the same gangly, mildly awkward appearance that a human teenager might have had. "You all right now?"

"Yeah.. yeah." I took a few deep breaths and nodded slowly, "I'm good. Sorry."

"It's all right, you waited until it was over at least. Could have been a lot worse for your first time."

I supposed that was true. "Thanks I guess."

Her mouth twitched into a little grin, "Illium Security should already be on there way. You think you can cover this guy while I check out his friends?"

 _No._ "Yes."

I managed to pick my weapon back up without dropping it, and double checked that I hadn't flipped the safety on when I'd been... whatever the hell I'd just been. Making sure to hold it in both hands, I rested my forearms along the hood of the flying car, taking general aim at the crippled kid.

Trena waited until I nodded at her before carefully stepping away, but she kept her weapon in hand.

_Probably doesn't trust me not to freak out again, not that I can blame her._

"True Sons, figures. Only they'd be stupid enough to send three kids to rob a machine shop. By the goddess, what the hell did they think they were going to get from us? Don't suppose you could answer that?"

The Batarian gave a long whimper and rolled a bit from side to side.

"Didn't think so." She gave a soft sigh, "Athame's ass as I didn't need this today." She went through the dead men's pockets, not finding all that much. A few identification chips, a few loose credits; the Batarian didn't even have an omni-tool, and the Salarian's was at least twenty years out of date.

By the time she finished the vague sound of sirens drawing closer had started to penetrate the walls, and she motioned for me to put my gun away. "They can be kind of touchy, best to keep it away."

I hesitated slightly, "What about... oh."

Trena hadn't even waited for me to finish before reaching out with her biotics, locking the Batarian into place with what I was guessing was a stasis.

"Forgot about biotics already?"

"Yeah. Sorry." I safetied my gun and compacted it, replacing it on my belt and blowing out a breath. "Not at my best right now."

"Don't worry about it ape, first time's rough on everyone. Least you haven't puked your guts out like I did." Her small nose wrinkled, "I can still _smell_ that stupid Krogan sometimes... you don't know just how fucking bad something can reek until you've had to deal with a disemboweled Krogan."

As I tried to deal with that mental image, the first cops apparently had managed to arrive. Someone began shouting over a loudspeaker as the sirens quieted a bit to let them hear any replies we might have had. " _Attention in the shop! This is I-Sec, can you confirm your identities?"_

"Trena T'laria, shop owner." I winced slightly at how loud she managed to shout that out, "And my human assistant. I've got two dead gang members and a third that could do with some medical aid."

There was a long pause, just enough for someone to look up something. " _Confirm your mother's name."_

"Marwei T'laria."

" _Keep your hands in sight, we're moving in."_

She finally holstered her own weapon, and we both spread our arms carefully apart as the cops burst in the open door. They were all wearing light armor and had pistols up and at the ready, the air shimmering from their biotics. One each headed for me and Trena, the rest quickly moved in on our guests.

"What happened here?" The one who approached me asked the question half a second after Trena's asked her the same thing.

"Um..well.."

"I've got this ape, you're my employee remember? No responsibility so long as I take it."

"Oh, right. Illium." I jerked my head at Trena, "Ask her then."

The cop's eyes narrowed but she gave a grudging nod, turning to keep both me and Trena in sight as her partner got the full story from my boss. It didn't take long, there really wasn't much to say. The other Asari ran her through it a few times to make sure that she had all the details right before thanking her and moving away to take notes on her omni-tool.

"So.. are they going to take us in or anything?"

She snorted before stretching out her arms and yawning massively. "Why would they? They're all marked as gang members, and the damage to the door speaks for itself. Worst we'll have to do is fill out some paperwork that they'll mail us later."

_Jesus. We just killed two people and crippled a third, and all we have to do is fill out some forms?_

Something must have shown on my face because the cop still watching me laughed, "New on Illium kid? I can tell. Athame's ass, if I was off duty I'd buy you a beer for taking out a few of these dicks. Racist tits." There was a rumble of agreement from her comrades, and the tension in the room seemed to ratchet down considerably.

One even clapped me on the shoulder on her way out, "You had the smg? Not bad for a rookie, you let off the trigger before you could shoot up your own shop. Don't see that often."

 _I had?_ The scene replayed in my mind. _Huh. I guess I did.. that's.. something?_

"Come on ape," Trena had to reach up to take me by the shoulder, "They're going to be here for a while. Let's get you somewhere where you can get a drink. The detective's got my number, she'll call us when they've got everything squared away."

You know, I think it was that moment, when we were leaving, that it finally, truly hit me that I wasn't home anymore. No human cop I could think of would have just let us walk out, but the Asari around us were acting like it was the most normal thing in the world. A few more even patted us on the back as we stepped over the ruined door, thanking us for killing a pair of kids.

My hands started shaking a bit, and I frantically shoved them into my pockets. I don't think any of them noticed, but Trena did eye me as we clambered into her speeder.

"So... where are we going?"

Her hands flew across the controls, the flying car practically leaping from the ground to cruising altitude in a matter of moments. "A Matriarch that I know, a different one, runs a bar nearby. Most places around here are dives, and that's not really my thing unless I'm looking for a hookup. Though after today that doesn't sound half bad."

I made strangled, choking sounds as my face heated up.

"What? Sex and danger go together ape, you'll get used to it. It's damned good way to take the edge off after something like today." She grinned and eyed me, "I'll see if I can find a place with human women for you. Not many in this flow of the river, but don't think you'd go for Batarian women, most humans don't."

"I..." _really have no words._ "Let's just get some drinks today, please."

She laughed at me, but thankfully refrained from further teasing.

It didn't take us all that long to get there, her car settling down between two far more weather-beaten models. I blinked as we got out, having barely paid attention to where we were going. We'd left the high rises of the River District proper, and were actually standing on Illium's soil. The bar itself looked as old and battered as the countless ones I'd seen back home. Well, save for the blue stone and strange swirling architecture, but that had seemed normal for Asari built things.

"Welcome to Forever. Don't ask why she called it that, don't fucking know." She talked as we walked, entering through the front door that slid open automatically. It was a nice little place. The lighting was low, highlighting several large screens showing various programs. There was a reasonable number of booths, only a few of which had occupants, but the bar itself ran the length of the main room. And behind the bar was... well fuck.

"The littlest T'laria. What are you doing out here?" Matriarch Aethyta's gravelly voice was just like I remembered it. Her appearance though... not so much.

The face was right, but apart from that she looked a lot more like Trena, scaled up, then did she like Liara. I didn't doubt for a moment that she could throw out a drunken Krogan without having to bother using biotics. "Hopefully not sex, ain't got the time."

"I'll have to settle for some drinks then. For me and for the ape here."

Her eyes were positively piercing in person, and I had to actually fight to stop from swallowing or stepping back. "So this is your new assistant? Looks young to me, even for a human. What do you call them, a teen?"

The comment made my lips quirk slightly, some of my awkwardness fading. "Sorry, I'm twenty five, that's six years past that."

"Oh good, less odds I'd have to hit your ass with a warp then." Even though there was a slight grin on her face, I knew she was dead serious. "What's your poison?"

 _I have no idea._ "What's good?"

"One of those huh. I'll mix something up."

She moved away, leaving the pair of us sitting in the Asari style stools. Which were quite similar to human ones, except they had only a single bar sticking crookedly up from the back to lean against. Sounds painful I know, but once you get used to it it's actually rather comfortable.

"You all right?" Trena kept her voice low as I settled back, staring vaguely at nothing.

"I'll live." _Unlike that Salarian kid._

"You know they would have killed us, right? Well, killed me. They'd have given you the join or die speech."

"How cliched... yeah, I know."

We both said nothing when Aethyta returned, pushing out drinks in front of us. Trena had gotten something in a jet black bottle, I got something... off white, tinged with blue. Which turned out to taste something like fruit punch actually, with a pleasant little kick at the end.

_Have to be careful.. getting drunk right now would be a terrible idea._

"So how do you know the old bat over here? And why is she bartending?"

"Friend of the family, you could say. She trained my mother and sisters a few centuries back." She took a long pull from her bottle, "Gave me some pointers too. She was a big deal back in the day, everyone thought she'd up on the Destiny Ascension itself."

"What happened?" I knew the generalities, but the details might be interesting.

"Politics." The word sounded more like an oath coming out of her mouth, "Those ancient tits on the Thessia didn't like what she had to say. Athame's ass, she's the only Matriarch I've ever heard of with a quad big enough to go against them. Told them flat out that our race was going down inside of a few centuries if we didn't get our act together and actually started advancing on our own. Got her booted out of the fleet, off of every council she was on, and she ended up here. Serving fucking drinks."

"Ouch." It wasn't the best acting job, but it didn't seem like she noticed. "Sounds like that one has to burn."

"You've got no idea kid." We both jumped slightly, jerking our heads around to see her sipping from her own drink not more than a meter away. "But I doubt you're here to talk about me. You got that look."

"Look?"

"Don't be obtuse. You got into a fight and you had to kill someone, and you feel bad about it." I bit my tongue and let her keep going, "Even though they'd have probably offed you and Trena, you still let yourself get all mopey."

Surprisingly, Trena rose to my defense, "Lay off Aethyta. He's never been in a fight before."

"Had to happen sometime with how this place is these days," Her muscled shoulders shrugged, "Better it happened when you could walk away and come here to drink. Gangs?"

"True Sons."

"Little bitches" Aethyta shook her head, "Bunch of goddess damned morons. How hard is it to case a place and realize that there's armed people inside?"

My mouth twitched again, "This is Illium. Isn't everybody armed?"

"Only the smart ones kid, only the smart ones." There was a flicker of pain in her eyes "And not enough of us smart ones left these days.. drinks are on the house tonight, just don't freeze up next time."

_How did... you know what, I don't want to know._

I took a long pull from my drink, and tried to forget everything that had just happened.

* * *

**Next up is Chapter 4: The Armor**

* * *

 

**Author's Fun Facts: Clawball**

_I like the idea of having futuristic sports. I'm picturing it as an Asari cross between Lacrosse and Football (soccer), adding in biotic talent, and is basically their version of the latter in terms of popularity._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So. Illium. What a nice place. We also meet Aethyta, such as she was three years before the first game. I also have to say that writing the slow build up like this is painful, so I hope that it is turning out all right for everyone.
> 
> We'll keep rolling along in the next chapter, and meet another OC, as well as picking up something that could last quite a while.
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	4. The Armor

**Chapter 4: The Armor**

* * *

The weeks after the incident passed quickly.

I didn't have as many nightmares as I worried that I would, which was a bit of bright news. The few that I did... well, they weren't pleasant, and I'm pretty sure Trena knew when I had one, because I threw myself entirely into work those days. But for the most part, life was turning out to be, well, pretty much life as usual, just on a different planet.

Wake up, work out, eat whatever I had laying around for breakfast, get dressed, be ready for Trena to knock on my door. If it had been a rough day, we'd head to Forever for drinks. Aethyta wasn't always there, but the other bartenders were companionable enough to talk to for a while. Otherwise we'd just head to our apartments.

For me, the latter usually meant time reading. I was improving in my ability to toss things together, but Trena constantly lamented that I had a long way to go. Still, she'd let me work on some shielding systems without her hovering over my shoulder, and I'd even gotten a Turian customer to compliment the job I'd done.

Other times it meant planning. I couldn't risk writing anything down, either on my various notes applications or physically, so I was stuck trying to memorize my thoughts. Have to say, that wasn't terribly easy either.

Trying to work out ways to join Shepard's crew was always a fun exercise, though honestly I wasn't entirely sure how good of an idea that was. If the Matriarch's 'Chosen One' turned out to be little more than her puppet, I'd be screwed right off the get go. And even if they weren't, I'd have to endear myself to the crew pretty quickly just to make sure I had people who could help me fight her.

 _Regardless, I don't see anyway to join the SR-1. I'd have to get to the Citadel somehow, and survive that trip, and then convince Shepard to let me join the hunt for Saren. Then survive two more years on the run from the Matriarch before Shep gets brought back to life._ I shook my head slowly, running through my thoughts as I made dinner. _No.. no way. I'm better off trying to find a way to join her on the SR-2 when it swings by Illium. Maybe I could become Liara's bodyguard or something. Assuming I still want to join up by then at all really, a lot can change in five or six years. How much of the story will I even remember by then?_

"Hey ape, you almost done in there? You're not adding poison are you?"

I snorted before calling back, "You know it scales!"

We had taken to cooking for one another once or twice a week. It hadn't taken me very long to realize that apart from me, Trena really didn't have any friends. Aethyta and Shaaryak were more of acquaintances, and you couldn't really just 'hang-out' with a matriarch or a Batrarian governor... black-marketeer... whatever the hell he was. And as for me, well, I really didn't know anybody else. Between working and my research there really wasn't time to go out just to find people to hang out with. And really, who could I befriend? Shockingly enough it was hard to find other people with similar experiences and interests.

So today I was making alfredo, after making sure that she wasn't allergic to anything I was throwing in there. I had to substitute a local fish for the chicken I'd have used back home, but I had to hand it to the Asari, they knew spices like nobody's business.

"Just make sure it's fast acting would you?" Her voice came closer, and I turned to see her leaning against the entryway to the kitchen. There was a smirk on her lips as she took a sip from her mug, "Or do you want me to suffer?'

"Nah, I'm saving the slow acting stuff for Shaaryak."

I'd met Xerol Shaaryak a few days after the incident. It had proven to be... enlightening. I really hadn't known what to expect from a Batarian exile living on an Asari world, but he certainly hadn't been it. He'd met us in a well-tailored suit that probably cost more than I made in a year, and actually carried an honest to gods cane like some an industrial baron might have.

We hadn't spoken much, but there hadn't been any of the anti-human racism I'd expected to see, either from him or the few other Batarians he'd had with him as bodyguards.

She laughed at that, "Bad idea, he's probably already immune to whatever you've got, and he'd feel obliged to kill you for trying."

"Point." My spatula rose in salute, "It's almost done."

"Praise the goddess."

"Tit."

"Monkey."

We traded a few more good natured insults as the noodles finished steaming. I drafted her into slicing the already finished meat into thinner slices while I added the sauce.

"So, you said we're meeting with Shaaryak again tomorrow?"

"Yeah, he found something in one of his junkyards we thought you might like."

I felt my eyebrows rise of their own volition, "Do I want to know how much it's going to cost me?'

A hand waved away my concern, "It's not much, consider it your life-day gift."

"It isn't..." I started before stopping myself. I wasn't supposed to know when my birthday even was, after all.

"I know, you can't remember it. I thought it would be good for you to have one, how's tomorrow sound?"

I'm not going to lie, I felt my mouth go dry and I had to close my eyes for a moment. I mean, I'd barely known this woman for two months, and here she was giving me a new birthday. Part of me twisted painfully, knowing that it was all a lie.. the rest of me told that part to shut up and try and accept what she was giving me.

"I... thanks, Trena."

"Yeah, well.. you're not bad around the shop. Would hate to lose you." She piled some of the pasta into a bowl. "Still... ah, enough of this shit. We sound like Quarian teenagers angsting."

I laughed as the awkwardness dissolved a bit, "What, think we should fight or something? Prove that we both still have a quad?"

"You know that's practically foreplay for Turians right?" She made a long sound of pleasure after taking the first few bites, "Wow, this is damn good.. for ape food."

"We're not Turians, and I know you're only into other Asari. So shut up and eat your damn meal."

I had to dodge the noodle she flung at me, but I considered it a success that she liked it enough not to throw more. If she'd have hated the food I didn't doubt for a moment I'd have been wearing it.

We ended up back in the living room, settling onto the floor (I'd just tossed the damn couch) to watch the local clawball team take on a Salarian team on some kind of charity tour. We lost, but managed to put up a hell of a fight all the same.

"Damn. Ullia and Itrain are too good to still be playing for us, no way we keep them next season."

I grunted in agreement, "Think Nos Astra is going to take them?"

"Yeah... Fucking Dantius, bitch just throws money at players." _Ah, Dantius.. somehow I'm not surprised._ "Well, thanks for the food. And not poisoning me."

"It's slow acting," I gave her a wink as I took her empty bowl, "Give it a while."

The moment I turned blue light enveloped the bowls, hurling them into my chest and sending sauce everywhere."Athame's ass!"

"Nice! 'bout time you started cursing like a local. See you tomorrow, bright and early?"

"Oi! Get your blue ass back here and help me clean this up!"

All I got was an insulting gesture over her shoulder as she bounced out the door, cackling to herself as she left.

Still, there was a grin on my face as I finished cleaning up.

"Ah, good morning my dear." Xerol Shaaryak greeted us at the entrance to the yard, as immaculately dressed as he had been the last few times I'd seen him. His almost teal skin looked even brighter against the white of his suit, and I swear, the only thing he was missing to fit into the roaring twenties was a top hat and a moncole. "And a pleasant morning to you as well Mr Kean."

"Shaaryak," I inclined my head into a respectful tilt like Trena had shown me, forcing myself not to blink as I kept my lips thinned. It was a pain to pull off, but it was the closest thing a human could get to a Batarian expression of polite deference. "A good and profitable morning to you."

His lips twitched as he inclined his head to a slightly more shallow angle, and I knew that I'd passed that test. "Please, there is no need to stand on ceremony amongst friends on this auspicious day."

"We've been here for less than a minute and you're already getting ready to sell us your crap." Trena chortled, "Come on Xerol, let's show the kid his new toy."

"But of course." There was a broad wave of his hand as he turned, leading us past the guard lounging near the gate. He and Trena ignored him, but I took a moment to give him the same tilt I'd given his boss, just to a more shallow degree.

The guard's top eyes blinked rapidly in surprise, but he managed to incline his head to the same level as me all the same.

_Always a good idea to be polite to the men with guns, and at least show them that I'm a human that doesn't look down on them._

I lengthened my strides a bit, quickly catching up to the pair of them as we meandered amongst the mix of scrap piles and salvageable materials. Some of it was being worked on, a mix of Batarian and Asari muttering and cursing filling the air. Speeders and larger air cars seemed to be the main focus, though here and there I saw better dressed workers at smaller stations working on far smaller parts.

They I did not greet. It was one thing to show respect to your host and his guards, but even exiled Batarians clung to their caste system tightly, and it simply was not done for a superior to bow his head to mere workers unless they impressed me personally.

Bit of a shit system really, but there wasn't jack I could do about it.

Shaaryak led us to a small mound laying slumped against a broken shipping container, waving his polished cane in its direction. "And here it is. You will not find one in better shape outside of the Hegemony itself."

It took me a bit to decipher what it was, but I let out a long whistle when I did.

It was the remains of a powered exoskeleton of some kind. The Batarian construction was obvious enough when I looked closer, their work tended to be rather blunt. Most of the exterior plating was gone, and it was clear that all of the eezo nodes had been yanked. Still, the artificial musculature looked intact, and it looked like the heavy engine was still in place on its back as well.

Honestly it reminded me a lot of Terran armor from Starcraft, except blockier and more primitive looking. Plus rusting and in pieces, which didn't do anything to detract from the comparison really.

"I saw this on my last trip here, thought you might like it." Trena chuckled at my rapt expression, "It's definitely a bit of work, but that'll be good practice for you."

"And I'll be more useful around the shop if I'm eight feet tall with artificial muscles?"

She barked out a laugh, "That too."

This was... wow. I moved closer, letting my eyes run over it. The suit was, charitably, a mess right now, but I was growing more confident of my skills as a mechanic. Not that I'd be competing with Quarians in rigging and hacking competitions or anything, but I was pretty sure that I could get it up and running again in a few weeks, with the right parts. It helped that Batarian engineering tended towards the simplistic, if often wasteful, side.

 _Oversized engine like that, to compensate for the small eezo modules in the limbs. Put some Sirta tech in there instead, and this thing could dance. Might even be able to add a barrier network, mount the main node right..._ I knelt down, twisting around to regard the rear of the suit, _Right there, a good mount right below the engine. Heh..._

I chuckled out loud as my eyes traced the exposed back, _Clever four eyed bastards, look at all of those hidden power couplings and connection ports. This thing's designed to be converted into powered battle armor with minimal fuss._

From what I had been able to pick up in my extranet wanderings, in the mass effect age, powered battle armor had more drawbacks than advantages. While their naturally heavy mass made them resistant to biotic attacks, that same weight required a good amount of element zero to help the engine actually get the thing moving with any kind of efficiency. Combine that with the requirement of spending days to weeks getting each suit custom fitted to its user, then the amount of spare parts needed to keep it running combat...

In the end, most governments didn't want to bother with the hassle, and most merc groups just couldn't afford the expenses. The Asari apparently had a few elite units defending their temples, but it was really just the Turians and Batarians that actually designed versions meant to serve on the front lines. Humanity itself was going down a slightly different path, preferring lighter, 'hybrid' suits but only for specialized N teams. At least according to the articles I'd read in my spare time, the Alliance itself was keeping its collective mouth shut on the subject.

 _Still, there's an idea._ Chewing that over, I nodded slowly, straightening as I stepped back to regard the exoskeleton in its entirety. _It'll be a complete pain in the ass, but it could be worth it. You didn't exactly react well under fire at the shop, maybe having some heavy plate in between you and the bullets will help._

Not that I wanted to throw myself into firefights, I was sane. But... eventually the Reapers wouldn't give me a choice. Better to overcome my problems now rather than dying pathetically at the hands of a husk a few years in the future. It would be costly... costly for someone without ready access to a junk dealer who was on good terms with your boss. _Yeah.. yeah this can work._

"Where did you get this?" I couldn't help but ask as I leaned over to stare at the interior, looking for the hinge joints that would open the torso enough for the wearer to wiggle in and out.

Our host chuckled darkly, "This piece came from Khar'shan itself. One of my competitors had hoped to use it and several others in the construction business."

I snorted, unable to help myself, "Moron."

The Asari hardly needed powered exoskeletons to get heavy lifting done. After all, when a teenager could throw a car around like a toy with just her mind, little things like cranes and exoskeletons were kind of passe.

"He was not a shining example of my people," He brought his hands together, his finger tips touching in a gesture I was unfamiliar with, "Alas, he was compelled to return to Omega, leaving much of his equipment and work force behind."

Another snort came out, though Trena joined me that time. Xerol Shaaryak was the closest thing to a leader that the small community of Batarian exiles had. If he wanted a idiotic competitor out of business, the poor fool was already on his way out, even if they didn't know it yet. Even the local Eclipse treaded carefully around his affairs.

And somehow he and Trena were on friendly terms. She still hadn't explained how they'd met, or why he always came to her with work. Honestly I really wasn't sure I wanted to know, it would probably just complicate my life even more.

"I"m going to need quite a bit to get this running."

I got a smile full of sharp teeth, "Today only you get a discount, provided you stick to the list that our dear Trena has provided to me."

My mouth twitched, "I'm guessing I don't get to know what's on that list?"

"Not until checkout." Trena punched my arm gently, "Can't have you going soft on me ape, think of it as the last test before I make you my apprentice officially."

"Do I get a raise?"

"What do you think?"

"Drinks at Forever tonight?"

"Maybe."

The three of us laughed a bit at that. The rest of the day passed quickly enough. Thankfully, Trena wasn't against giving me a little help, and we ran the entire thing through a dozen scans to figure out what I'd need to get it moving at all. Once I had that list in place, it was onto more optional gear, mostly spare parts.

By the time I was done, I was half reconsidering the idea. The parts themselves weren't expensive, even without Shaaryak's 'discount', but there was so bloody _many_ of them. Omnigel would only go so far, after all, and we ended up filling up a crate as long as I was tall. There were tiny eezo containers (worth as much as the rest of it put together), a dozen small motors, half as many larger ones, bundles of artificial muscles that looking like gray noodles with circuitry imbedded, and enough wiring to choke an Elcor.

Trena footed the bill, but I convinced her to let me pay off the delivery fees.

"It will be at your shop first thing in the morning tomorrow." Xerol gave us another long tilt of his head, which we both returned, "It was good to see you both. A week from now I have a small event, I was hoping that you might both attend."

I didn't realize that I'd given an Asari style shrug until I caught the sight of Trena's shit-eating grin. "Is Aethyta doing the catering?"

"As well as running the bar."

"Then of course we're in!" I punched Trena in the arm, which probably hurt my hand more than her shoulder. My workout regimen was helping, but the damn woman was built like a brick. "Please tell me we don't have to dress up."

"Casual is quite fine, it is an informal holiday of my people."

"Pillars day." My boss supplied as she checked off on the receipt, "When their religion established the first great temple."

"Oh. Nifty."

"Indeed." He rewarded us with another sharp grin, "I look forwards to your attendance."

Here's something I bet most people don't know; Learning how to walk in a powered exoskeleton is awkward as hell. You're suddenly a good twelve inches taller, eight inches wider, and even with the element zero nodes decreasing the mass, the entire suit shifted awkwardly as I took a slow step. To make it worse, the range of motion on your arms is limited by the bulky metal around them, making keeping my balance even more annoying.

It hadn't taken as long as I'd feared to get it up and moving, less than a day actually, but Trena had made me wait until the next morning before I got into it. We'd spent all of said morning adjusting the interior so that I could actually fit, a process that left us both swearing and growling in irritation inside of an hour. After a quick break for some lunch, we pulled the torso cage open enough for me to slip inside and get ready for the first tests.

I looked... pretty ridiculous. Without armor plating, or normal plating at all, I looked like I was wearing an oversized suit of wires and cables kept in place by boxy, wireframe cages

"Careful there ape, we just got this crate together." Trena, monitoring a dozen small monitors, cautioned me as I exhaled slowly.

"I know scales," I brought my left foot up extremely carefully, shifting my weight slowly as I placed it back down, settling with my legs wide apart. "Damn, this is going to get worse when we get the plates on."

"That's why we've got to get your motions down now, get you used to it." She turned, frowning as she brought up her omnitool, "Where do you need it adjusted?"

"Right leg, it's too heavy."

Fingers flew across the holographic buttons, "Try it now."

Taking another lumbering pair of steps, I nodded slowly, "That's better. Anything we can do about the arms?"

"They're as loose as they're going to get if you want them on at all."

"Would be a rather useless suit without them." I sighed, carefully putting them through their own motions. "All right, how badly is this going to hurt?"

"If we adjusted everything properly? Shouldn't be too bad."

"Great." Blowing out a breath, and carefully turning in place to regard the cleared shop, I nodded once to myself, and started walking.

I made it a half dozen steps before I overcompensated with my left arm, the gyros and motors within the suit whirring madly as the still primitive system tried to compensate for my motions. I wavered almost comically in place for a moment, feeling my heart-rate skyrocket as I fought the waves of panic, and then I went over.

It was more loud than painful, for which my body thanked me, even if my ears didn't.

"Well, there's one data point. Few dozen more and we it might be able to keep up with you." She appeared above me, frowning at the data graph scrolling above her wrist. "The padding held up at least."

"Yeah... A few dozen?"

"That thing you're in was built on the cheap for someone shorter and bulkier than you. Consider us lucky if you don't go over a few hundred times before we get all the kinks out."

"Joy."

"Just wait until we start getting you used to the strength." She chuckled as she stepped back, giving me room to try and stand. "You'll be throwing things around and crushing bars until we get it setup right and you get used to it. Up you get."

"Right." I rolled a bit like a turtle, getting onto my side so that I could an a leg under me. Which promptly sent sparks flying as I extended it before the club of a foot was properly positioned.

"Hey!"

"I know, I know!" More careful the second time, I managed to get the leg properly in place before pushing myself to a crouch. Biting my lip as I wavered slightly, I managed to get my other leg down before I toppled again. Which, naturally, made me overconfident. I straightened upwards too quickly, the mass manipulation unable to compensate for the bulky engine. I windmilled my arms a few times before toppling backwards with another crash.

"Graceful, I love how you flailed at the end."

"Athame's tits aren't you supposed to be helping me right now?"

Her arms crossed as she pointedly glanced at her wrist and then back at me.

"Right... I'm sorry."

Her grunt wasn't exactly forgiving, but she went back to her omni-tool to adjust the eezo flow all the same.

Six hours later we were sitting in Forever, and I was nursing drinks and trying to ignore the way Trena was playing the entire afternoon on the screen behind the bar. A half a dozen giggling maidens had surrounded her, and they and my erstwhile friend were doing shots each time I fell over. Needless to say, they were all drunk off of their blue asses.

 _Yeah.._ I winced as I reached for my own drink, my entire body feeling like a giant wound. Padding or not, I'd gone down enough that my bruises had bruises. _Not the best idea. It's going to be months before I really get used to it._

"You all right kid?" Aethyta slid over another Illium Moonlight, taking my mostly empty glass as she moved over. "Looks like you had a rough day."

"I'll live." The drink went down smooth, "Could have been worse."

"Yeah, I'll give you that." She turned as Trena led her little gang in another shot to go along with a clip of me rebounding off a wall and sending sparks flying as I collapsed in a heap. "I wouldn't think of turning that into anything for a while."

I blinked blearily, my face pulling into a slight frown. "Turning it into... huh?"

"This is Illium kid. Trena and that four eyed friend of hers wouldn't have gotten you something like that for kicks."

That.. hadn't exactly occurred to me. I'd gotten so wrapped up in my own ideas for arming and armoring the thing that I'd never even considered the idea that Trena might have _intended_ for me to do that in the first place.

_Here I was worried I'd have to come up with some excuse.. but if Aethyta is right.. she's already got one ready._

"I.. ah.."

"You didn't think of it." Her head shook and her expression came close to pity, "Illium kid. Illium." She made it sound more like an oath than the planet's name.

"Illium." I murmured, taking a longer pull of the teal liquid, the good mood that I'd been riding since my new 'birthday' vanishing with the word. If Trena was worried enough after our gang attack that I needed freaking power armor to keep me alive.. "Is there some news I'm not aware of?"

"Nothing official.. but girls like Trena get instincts about this kind of thing. I'd trust her, if I were you. Drinks on the house tonight, just don't tell the children over there."

I rose my glass in salute as she headed back to reload the shot glasses, then let my eyes fall to stare into my drink.

Weeks.. months.. hell, I'd thought I had years to get ready. Now.. it sounded like I'd better be ready to get back to work tomorrow, because something was coming. And Trena.. _knew_ something, and wasn't telling me. For my own protection? Or did she not really trust me?

Half the drink vanished into my mouth, wishing like I hadn't wished since I'd arrived that I'd wake up the next morning on Earth.

"Fucking Illium."

* * *

**Next up is Chapter 5: The Experience**

* * *

**Author's Fun Facts: Cieran and the Armor's Heights**

_Cieran Kean is about six feet tall, give or take a few hairs. While wearing the armor, it bumps him up to closer to seven and a half (from the bottom of the feet to the top of the armored box that protects his head)._

_In terms of appearance, I'm drawing inspiration from both Battletech and Starcraft, but it's probably closer to the Terran Marine armor from the latter, just a bit different._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, bit of an emotional roller coaster here. From the good, to the good, to the bottom pretty quick. We've got the armor.. sort of, with all of the benefits and drawbacks that are implied. I don't want the protaganist to turn into a Sue of any kind, so expect plenty of the latter, he's no Tony Starrk. In the meantime, he starts to realize that there is more to Terna than he knows, and Aethyta gives her guarded, if jaded, wisdom.
> 
> I also have to say that I enjoy writing Xerol Shaaryak, so expect him to keep cropping up as the fic goes on. I like to picture him as the Batarian version of Rufus Shinra. All collected and polite until it comes time to blow someone's head off with a shotgun.
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one.
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	5. The Experience

**Chapter 5: The Experience**

* * *

I never was the best actor.

It didn't help that my main method of dealing with unexpected emotions was to go silent and brood quietly on my own. Which would probably have been unnoticeable if I'd still just been another cubicle drone, banging away at code inside thin walls. But when your only coworker is your boss, who also happens to be the only friend you've got on the entire planet...

Trena cornered me in the shop around mid-afternoon.

"Spit it out _ape_." The usual teasing nickname had bite to it now. "Or by the Goddess herself I will kick your ass until you do."

I glowered at her, though I knew it lacked any real heat. She'd had the mother of all hangovers in the morning, which had let me mostly absorb myself in the day's work: fixing a pair of Salarian made omni-tools that had shorted from improperly installed power cells. It wasn't until after lunch that she'd noticed that I hadn't said a word all morning. From that point on she'd spent more time giving me side-long glances and trying to pester me into starting our usual banter than actually repairing the flatscreen on her workbench.

At seeing my expression she threw her hands up in irritation, "You can't be _that_ thin skinned about the vid last night. We've both said far worse to each other and you know it."

"It isn't that." I waved her hands away, trying to find the right words. _Shit. I've never been good at this kind of thing._ "Trena, why did you get me the armor?"

"The suit?" Her gem colored eyes blinked furiously, "I thought we already went over that."

My arms crossed my chest as I stared at her flatly.

"Right..." Much of the anger bled out of her, "Right. This is the part where you ask about my dark and tragic past, I spill my guts out, then we have make-up sex on my desk."

I arched one my eyebrows but didn't bother saying anything.

One of her hands reached up to run along her fringe, "Well.. shit this isn't easy you know. I don't see you getting ready to tell me everything about you either."

"There isn't anything to say," A finger tapped my temple, "Remember?"

"Yeah... well, you can't remember, and I don't want to. The Matriarch... I owed her a lot, and I'm smart enough to know that I shouldn't ask questions." Her teeth bit into her bottom lip in an endearingly human expression, "It's what I owed her that's the problem. She got me out of a pretty bad past all right? I'm not proud of any of it, but sometimes it comes in handy. I hear shit."

"And that makes you think I could use some powered battle armor to get along with?"

"This is Asari space Cie. I know you're an adult by your species' standards, but out here you're a little kid who can barely defend himself. Aethyta can bitch all she wants, but the average maiden, slut or straight arrow, could pound you into jelly with her mind before you could draw your gun." I winced but nodded, accepting the point. "This is a dangerous ass planet, and its getting worse all the time. Like these True Sons. No one I know has any idea why the hell they got a merc contract."

"Wait," I had to stop here there, "They've got a mercenary contract? Like the Eclipse?"

"How the hell else do you think they've avoided the cops so long?" She practically sneered at my ignorance, "Baking them fucking cookies?"

"All right all right, I'm an ignorant human child who needs you too look out for me. Happy?"

"No... look ape... Cieran." She rubbed at her fringe again, fingers nervously dancing along the tendrils, "I haven't had a... friend in a few decades all right, not since I went on the run. I'd rather you not get killed if it's all the same. If that means I have to call in a favor from an unscrupulous Batarian exile to get my hands on an exoskeleton we can rig up into battle armor, than that's what I do."

"Oh.." And quite suddenly I felt like a jerk. A small, dark part of me whispered that she could be lying, that this could all be an act to make me feel attached to the one person that I really knew. The rest of me told that little voice to shut the hell up. I'd spent more time with Trena in the last few months than I'd spent with my own family in years back home, and if she was playing me, I'm pretty sure I'd have noticed signs by now. I hoped. "Well... fuck."

Her mouth quirked slightly, "You're not my type, remember? Especially not with that thing on your face."

I felt my own lips quiver slightly, but I reached up to run my fingers through the mustache and goatee that I'd started to grow all the same. "I'll have you know that I look damn good with a beard."

"Human women have awful taste then. You look like there's a dead animal draped across your mouth."

"What a lovely image from someone with scales for skin."

She punched my shoulder, which made me rock back a bit. My fist bumped hers in return, and we both grinned as things went back to normal between us. Well, as normal as things ever were between two people that spent most of their time insulting one another.

"So..." I settled back into my chair as she went back to her side of the shop, "Please tell me the Matriarch hasn't been talking to you."

"Not a word since she told me to take you in."

"Good riddance." My hand found an extractor, and I started carefully working out a bad power supply from the thin block. "No offense but she's creepy as hell."

"The deeps ape. Creepy as the deeps."

"Hell. Deeps. Whatever. Creepy as an unholy place filled with abominations that want to suck out your soul. Better?"

There was a strangled snort. "Don't let her hear you say that."

"Oh I won't."

"Come on you piece of... gotcha!" There as a long tearing sound, followed a metallic _pop!_ "Nope, haven't heard a word, and rather glad about that. You pick out your outfit for Xerol's holiday yet?"

"Whatever I'm wearing that day." I frowned at the piece in front of me before muttering a few choice curses about the Salarian's ancestry. "What the hell did this moron do? We still have that file on rebuilding a Ullion Twenty Two?"

"Yeah, check your in-box from two weeks ago. And come on, there's no way you can pick up a girl dressed like that."

Finding the message in question didn't take long, and I started the laborious process of fixing some moron's attempt to hot wire his own omni-tool. "I had it on good authority that I wouldn't care for Batarian women, and that they wouldn't like me. Maybe you know her, she's short, opinionated, and bit of a tit really."

Ducking on reflex at the last, I felt more than heard the bolt fly past where my head had just been. "Still, having seen a few, can't wonder if she was a bit biased."

Which was only a partial understatement. Batarian women weren't that bad on the eyes, so long as you didn't mind your women to be fairly tall and almost universally well muscled. And their nostrils didn't gape open like the males, instead being smaller, downturned slits that actually did a lot to feminize their appearance.

Still, most of them wouldn't touch a human with a thirty nine and a half foot pole so the point was largely moot. But hey, at least only their canines are fangs, with normal teeth everywhere else, unlike the men. Apparently it had something to do with their species rather fucked up evolutionary path, not that I'd really read all that much into it.

_"_ Seriously? The four eyes don't throw you off a bit?"

I shrugged. "You already taught me how to deal with that. Just unfocus my eyes and look over their shoulder."

"That's for _talking_ with them ape, not dragging one to bed. Wait..." There was a long pause before her tone turned to one of shock, "You're actually thinking about it, aren't you? When was the last time you got some?"

"Longer than you, but that's not hard."

If Trena had a weakness, it was for blue asses in short skirts. Or in any kind of skirts. Or better yet, forget the skirts and get straight to the part where there was nothing on below the waist.

She rarely left Forever without some form of companionship, and it was very rarely the same Asari. But they did seem to be far more relaxed about that kind of thing here, and none of her former lovers ever seemed upset at seeing her walk out with someone else. A few had even tried to hook up with me, or worse, invite me along with them.

Which was... different.

I'd never been the type of guy to sleep around, or even get offers like that. I could count on one hand the number of women I'd been with in my life. Getting over the embarrassment had been a bit rough at first, but it seemed to be one of those things you just had to get used to on Illium. These days I just politely declined when it came up, although word of my 'condition' had spread enough amongst the usual crowd that most of the time they just contented themselves with talking or moving onto other potential dates.

"No way, I want a number."

_Thirteen months before I arrived here, right before I broke up with my last ex. That makes is sixteen months.. last week or so, but who's counting really?_ "I have no idea, I can only remember the last few months."

"Oh. Right." There was an embarrassed moment that passed as quickly as it came, "Still, way too long without a tumble. Damn your condition is annoying... I know plenty of girls eager to show you their azure. Hey, do you even know what Batarian women look like naked? What if they have fangs on their... you know."

I dropped my tools with a long groan, rubbing at my forehead to try and get that mental image out of my head.

Ok, I have to admit this here, I've always been a bit of a xenophile when it comes to women. Pretty much every girl I'd ever gone after in my short life had been of a different race. Not exactly something I take pride in, but it was just one of those things that I'd accepted about myself. Not that I was about to sign up for Fornax just to see what a Batarian or Quarian looked like nude, as much as Trena probably wished I would.

Which probably why I wasn't as averse to the idea of bringing a Batarian woman back to my apartment. Or maybe it was just the fact that Asari were off-limits, and there really weren't any options besides Batarians in this part of town.

"Seriously ape, it's not natural to go that long without."

"How in the world did we go from me thinking you were setting me up for the Matriarch to you needling me about my sex life?"

"Or lack thereof." I turned to toss her a glare, but it merely rebounded off her thick skin, "Why don't you just come with me to the clubs, find a nice girl. Human, Turian, Batarian, whatever makes you float."

"I'm not the clubbing type." My eyes rolled. _That_ was one thing I had determined not to change about myself. I could handle relaxing in a bar with people I knew, but I'd taken one look into an Asari nightclub and left before Trena had been able to stop me. I was pretty sure I'd gotten a contact high _and_ gotten drunk just from the glance. "If I want a girl I'll go find one on my own, I don't need your help."

Not that I intended to. As much as I, a human male, did enjoy doing the deed as it were, I wasn't ready to go looking for some action just yet. If I ever did. I mean, I'd only arrived here a few months ago, I still had to keep myself from slipping up and saying something stupid in casual conversation. How bad would it be if I had someone besides Trena, who largely ignored me when I said something inane, around who might pick up on things like that?

_And even if I do find someone.. what happens in three years when Eden Prime gets attacked? Or in five, when the collectors start up? Or six, when the Reapers do?_ I turned away from Trena, biting my tongue softly, _Will I even be on Illium then? Would I be with Shepard?_ It was hard not to snort aloud, _Will I even be alive? No.. better to stay alone in that regard. Easier on everyone that way._

If I said it often enough, maybe I'd even believe it.

The day of the party came in a rush. Trena had managed to drag me out to get some nicer clothes the day before, but I was proud to say that I had resisted with the full strength of my nerd-like heritage. Instead of the full casual suit that she'd been trying to get me into, I'd left with only a nicer gray shirt made out of some kind of Thessian silk. Which sounded very fancy and high to-do up until you got to the logo of a petite blue fist seizing a claw that dominated the entire front.

_River District Talonfists, all the way!_

"I still can't believe you're wearing a clawball jersey." Trena shook her head as we approached the entrance.

"Rather hypocritical of you scales." I tugged on the hem a bit, making sure it wasn't tucked into my plain black pants. "Considering I remember you bitching that they didn't have on in your size. I still can't believe that they had a section in there for humans."

"We were in Nos Astra, they like to be prepared for any kind of customer." We paused just before the doors so that she could adjust her own clothes. Despite her comments, she was hardly dressed up either. I didn't doubt that most of the Asari within would be wearing dresses, but Trena had gone with the a plain turquoise shirt, black silk pants, and had a blood red sash riding down from her belt and around her upper hips. It simple, striking, but most of all, was very... her.

Neither of us had bothered to conceal the guns on our belts though.

_Illium.. what a place._

Not that we really expected trouble. Shaaryak's security would be all over the building, and it was likely common knowledge that Aethyta was present. Black sheep or not, I doubted that there were more than a handful of living people of any species that would willingly tangle with her if the stories Trena fed me were true. Apparently Liara's dad hadn't just talked about the Asari building up their strength, she'd proved it possible by example by leading dozens of commando raids into the Terminus.

One of Trena's flings, a dainty, pretty thing named Shyvie, had even said there were rumors that she had personally gone up against Aria and driven the Queen of Omega herself off whatever planet they'd been fighting on. I had no idea if it was actually true or not, and there was no way I had a big enough quad to ask Aethyta about that kind of thing, but it definitely helped her rep out.

"Ah, Trena, Cieran." Xerol Shaaryak, as immaculate as ever in yet another white suit, emerged as the doors swung open, not moments after she had finished adjusting her belt and I'd quadruple checked the safety on my smg, "So good of you both to come."

I restrained a snort at the timing. I didn't doubt for a moment he'd been lingering on the other side, watching on one camera or another to make his entrance only once we were both prepared for it.

We exchanged the usual head tilts of respect, his to the right, ours to the left, before he cheerfully ushered us inside.

I'm not sure what the place was supposed to be, but our host had turned it into a respectable little ball room. Most of the place was filled with small tables and chairs, packed to the brim with individuals from all species. Batarians were, of course, the most represented, followed by Asari, but I did see the occasional Turian and Salarian. There was even a few other humans present, though most of them had the look of mercenaries, slamming back beers and laughing uproariously with a few of their Turian counterparts.

Thankfully neither of us had ended up being under or overdressed. At least half of the crowd was as casual as we were, with the rest falling above or below us. Only a few Batarians had apparently gone all out in their appearance, much like our host had, which probably marked them out as the upper crust.

My eyes were naturally drawn to a long bar had been setup all along one side of the room, Aethyta visibly directing the chaos around the place as her other bartenders desperately raced around to fill orders. _First stop, there. Probably the last stop too._

"Feel free to mingle as you wish." His cane thrust towards a large open area, "There will of course be dancing later, once dinner is completed."

_Dancing... no thanks._

Apparently Trena had the same thoughts on that as me, because he made a point of giving us both a needle filled grin, "It is traditional, as you well know. I will have to insist."

We exchanged a quick glance that earned us a deep chuckle, "Don't even think about it."

Trena's eyes widened innocently, "Think about what? Ape, you know what he's talking about?"

"I have no idea scales." My hands slid into my pockets as I did my best to look nonchalant, "No idea at all."

The cane thumped hard against my chest before I could dodge it, drawing a grunt from me, and a similar one when he whapped it against Trena's thigh. "If you even think of leaving before I see you out there, I will beat you both until you can't walk."

I didn't doubt him for a moment.

"Enjoy the party." His serious expression morphed into another grin as he nodded once to each of us before he strolled back towards the entrance, probably to greet any other fashionably late guests.

"By the goddess I hate that man sometimes." Trena shook her head at his back, "Every damn year he makes me dance with someone."

"Really?" I couldn't stop the grin, "You've never tried to get out of here before that point?"

There was a deep wince and her right hand rose to rub her left shoulder, "Yeah... the first time."

I winced, "Ouch."

"Bastard's three centuries younger, still got the drop on me the next day. Jabbed me with that stupid stick in the shoulder till it bruised, then made me spend the entire day watching recordings of vorcha doing... well... I'd rather not say." Her entire body shook as her face twisted, "I've had to deal with some bad shit, but by the goddess it was awful. I wanted to claw out my own eyes _and_ ear canals by the end of the first hour. Swore by Athame herself I'd put up with one lousy dance if it meant never going through that again."

_Ok... so I guess I'm dancing then._ "You think he'd let us just do it and get it over with?"

She jerked her chin towards the bar, "What do you think?"

"Shit." I followed her. After that bit of news I needed a drink too.

We fought our way through the crowd, making judicious use of our elbows and ability to completely ignore the dirty looks everyone threw at us.

The bartender, a thin rail of an Asari named Trisren, who was fine with just 'Tris', shook her head at us and tossed down our usual drinks without a word. A good ten or fifteen minutes of companionable drinking followed, both of us enjoying our refreshments while chatting with her and Aethyta after the rush abated a bit. Once the crowd had mostly dispersed to the tables or into smaller groups standing around randomly, a few others at the bar joined us. Clawball was the main topic of discussion, particularly after a well-built Turian had noticed what I was wearing.

"Seriously, the River District?" She rumbled, her mandibles flaring into what I thought was a grin, "You mean the only clawball team on Illium to make the championship game and _lose_ five years in a row?"

"At least we made it that far." I grinned at her, "And from the superior, condescending tone, would you be a Nos Astra fan?"

That got a bark of laughter, her mouth opening enough to show her fangs, "As if. Try Nos Irrail."

A strangled choking sound was enough of a warning for me to jerk my arm away before Trena finished coughing up the beer that she'd practically inhaled. "Irrail!? They haven't made the post season in decades!"

The poor Turian woman had the good grace to look embarrassed, "We... we almost made it this year."

I jumped in before Trena could really dig into her about the historically awful team, "Yeah, that final game was a disgrace. I can't believe they still can't prove that official was bought off."

There was a rumble of agreement from the crowd around us, "Criminal is what it was."

Even Trena had to give a nod to that. It had easily been the worst officiated game in the last century, and that had cost Irrail their spot. Not that they would have gone anywhere, but it was the principle of the thing. That of course started everyone going further on the subject of Clawball, and we even roped Aethyta in for a while. Eventually our little group split up, Trena guiding a young maiden she'd been supplying with booze away, while the Turian woman wandered off with another of her own species, which left me alone at our little stretch of the bar.

For the most part, the next hour or so passed pleasantly enough. I mostly people watched, amusing myself by comparing how the different species interacted compared to humans. And each other.

The Batarians I could easily identify by caste just from their clothing. Most of them were what I was guessing was their version of middle class. A few lower members were idling around, waiting for whoever was cooking for everyone to finish up so that they could help serve us. The two groups didn't interact at all, and Shaaryak and the handful of other dressed up Batarians likewise seemed to ignore both of them unless they had something to say.

The Asari were as chatterboxy as they always tended to be in social situations, though I was a little surprised to see the few Salarians were the same way. Members of both species were chatting up anyone who happened to walk close enough, often without even bothering to see how interested they were in the first place.

The Turians, along with the few humans, mostly kept to their own little groups, only interacting with people who seemed to have like interests. The obvious mercs with other obvious mercs for example.

I was amusing myself watching a Turian flail all over himself as he tried to hit on an Asari who looked like she couldn't decide if she wanted to hurl him out a window, or break down laughing, when someone new moved into the empty bar seat beside me.

The Batarian woman that sat down was obviously upper crust, wearing a multi-layered black dress the contrasted heavily with her teal skin. She was slim for a Batarian, though still far more muscled than most human women would have been, and from the way she threw out a hip as she sat she expected me and everyone else to notice just how shapely it was.

Very expensive looking earrings dangled from her pointed ears, reflecting the light lazily as she turned her head. As usual for a Batarian woman, she was tall as well, easily matching all of my six feet. There wasn't much of a bust, but her dress did accentuate what she had very well, and I couldn't stop myself from casually flicking my eyes up and down her.

_Well now, can't complain about the new view..._

Of course, most of the attraction died the moment she regarded me, tilting her head hard to the right in a sharp gesture of innate superiority. She didn't even bother waiting for me to respond before snapping herself back up and directing an annoyed gaze at Tris.

_..and never-mind. A spoiled little rich girl come to inflict her presence upon this poor bar. Well, huzzah for three steps forwards in human-batarian relations in a little corner on Illium... and now five steps back._

I'd been good so far, keeping my head still and my eyes straight whenever I'd had to talk with her species. No one had gotten insulted by accident at least, which I took as a win. I made sure to flick my eyes between both sets of hers, then casually tilted my head to the right before I pointedly looked away from her.

I swear I could hear her teeth grind even over the sound of conversations, and Trisren was fighting back a smile as she refilled my drink, her eyes wickedly amused as she joined me in ignoring the new arrival. "Sure you don't want something besides this?"

"Well I don't know," I spoke over the infuriated " _Barkeep!"_ , "What do you think of that wine from Elysium?"

A navy hand rose to cup her chin, "It's not bad for human work," she had to raise her voice over a " _Hey! You!_ ", "Don't know if we have anything that's not newer than seventy though."

"Damn. I'd heard good things about the sixty-one." A hand clamped firmly on my shoulder and yanked me hard around to stare into two sets of black eyes glaring furiously.

"Are you done _lowborn?_ I'd like to order a _drink_."

I let myself hesitate for a long moment before shrugging, hoping that Trisren would know what to do. "Order away."

"Get me... where did she go!?" Both of her hands hit the bar in anger, propelling her halfway to her feet as she frantically looked both ways before finding Trisren already serving another group of Batarians a good three meters away from us. The other bartenders were easily twice as far down, and were also quite busy serving other guests.

"You know, you'd get a lot farther in life if you were more polite." I took a long sip from my drink as she turned that anger back towards me, "After all, it is never a good idea to insult the people who make your food and drinks."

There as a long, seething sound somewhere between a sigh and a snarl, revealing her teeth. While she lacked the harsh maw of a male, and actually had normal if oddly colored teeth for the most part, the needle-sharp canines gave her an almost vampiric appearance. "Do you have any idea who I am?"

"Nope." Another pull from my drink, savoring the flavor, "Do you have any idea who I am?"

Her upper eyes blinked furiously while her lower set narrowed. "Someone with an overinflated sense of self importance for a lowborn alien. Obviously."

"Nice riposte," My head tilted barely to the left, "I should have opened with that."

There was a long silence as she continued to glare at me, her narrow fingers drumming on the bar as she waited for something. At first I thought it was just for Tris to come back, but it wasn't until I realized that she'd kept all of her eyes firmly on my face that it occurred to me that she was waiting for me to ask her name. After all, it simply wouldn't do for someone of her stature to offer her identity to someone below her, alien or not.

_Trena, you're a horrible influence... or I've had too much to drink. Or both. Let's go with both._ Normally I wouldn't dare do what I was about to, but something about her just eroded the awkward anti-social wall that normally kept my sarcasm at bay around people I didn't know. "So, you like clawball?"

"I... what?"

"Do. You. Like. Clawball?" I enunciated each word carefully, just in case she was hard of hearing. "You know, the sport that _everybody_ on Illium loves?"

Her skin flushed, the teal darkening to a muddy red, "I will not sit here and listen to you insult me."

My left arm waved expansively, "By all means then, leave the lowborn human to his drink and inflict your attitude elsewhere."

"How.. .you..." She let out a seething, whistling sound between her teeth, "How _dare_ you."

"How dare I what? Be myself? I know, it is quite daring of me isn't it. Most people can't handle the insanity, but I have to say you're holding up all right." I gave her a wink, "We're getting along _so_ well. Perhaps we should dance later? Maybe find a secluded corner and make out?"

I realized I'd stepped into something the moment her expression went from one of murderous rage to cunning calculation, two eyes shifting to the slowly filling dance floor while the others stayed on me.

"Since you've asked.." And damn me if she didn't blink demurely with all four eyes, tilting her head to the left slightly, the very picture of an apologetic lady as she slid out of her chair and bowed slightly. "I must beg your forgiveness, and insist that you allow me to take you up on that offer of a dance."

"What?" My buzzed mind whirled as she shifted gears. _Wait... this can't be good. In no way cane this be good. "_ Ah, actually I-" I frantically tried to find Tris, hoping that she could help me get out of this.

"Excellent." A strong hand practically yanked me upright, not giving me the chance to get away. "You do know how to dance, do you not?"

"Well, no, so why don't I just stay-"

"Then I shall lower myself to guide you." She trapped my hand in the crook of her arm, dragging me away from the bar. I cast a longing glance behind me in time to see Tris dash over to Aethyta and point. My moment of hope only lasted until Aethyta threw her head back in full bellied laughter, motioning for Tris to dash after us, her omni-tool lit and raised.

_I'd bet my new armor that's a recording program.._ I briefly managed to free myself at the edge of the dance-floor, trying to find a way to dodge back through the crowd and wondering what the hell her plan was... because if I couldn't figure it out fast, I had a bad feeling that I wouldn't enjoy it. "All right, fine. Who are you?"

"Hand, here." My right arm was grasped firmly into hers, "Other hand, here." And my left onto the side of her strong waist, more near her stomach than her back. "Now, we dance."

And we did. Not particularly well, considering I had no idea what I was doing and she growled at me to shut up every time I tried to say something. Thankfully the current routine was slow enough that I was able to avoid stepping on her, though it gave me plenty of time to be mortified every-time I saw Trena gallop past with the little maiden hanging off of her. Or whenever I caught sight of Tris gleefully recording the entire thing from the crowd. I kept trying to free my hand so that I could flee, only to have to wince in pain as her nails dug into my skin. After a while, I mostly just gave up and tried to enjoy myself.

But it wasn't until the dance ended and the mystery woman leaned forwards that I realized just how badly I'd misjudged her.

"My name is Nynsi Shaaryak." My mouth dropped open at that, which gave her the opening she needed to lean in and plant her lips on mine.

It was... wow. Wildly different form kissing a human woman. The feel of her mouth, the texture of her lips... and she tasted... strong, like earthy herbs in an entirely pleasant sort of way. It lasted for a few moments before she pulled back, her right eyes winking at me before whispering, "Enjoy explaining this to my uncle. Maybe next time you should respect your betters, hm?"

Said uncle was visible in the crowd behind her, clenching his cane hard enough that I was pretty sure it was about to shatter.

My heart practically stopped, the momentary rush from her kiss vanished, and her grin only grew wider at the resulting expression on my face.

_Oh fuckberries._

* * *

**Next up is Chapter 6: The Strife**

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I know, this was supposed to take me a while to get done.. but once I started last night I just couldn't bring myself to stop, so here it is. This one was pretty fun to write, not going to lie, and it serves to set up a bit of humor in a story that will tend towards being dark.
> 
> We meet Xerol Shaaryak's niece at the party, and Cieran learns the hard way not to underestimate someone's ability to repay his wise-assness in kind. He also has a fun conversation with Trena.
> 
> We are getting closer to.. well, quite a bit happening though, so expect the next chapter to be longer than normal. I'm not sure if there will be a steady size at all to the chapter length from this point on, but this is about the minimum (hopefully that's all right), as I dislike posting shorter chapters.
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	6. The Strife

**Chapter 6: The Strife**

* * *

I have no idea how I survived the rest of that night.

Nynsi had practically floated away, positively preening while Xerol had given me the glare of death. There had to have been some kind of disturbance at the entrance, because one of his guards had moved up to talk in his ear before they'd both headed in that direction. I hadn't wasted a moment after that, running off to find Trena so that we could get the hell out of there.

Trena and her date, laughing and giggling respectively, had guided me out to her car through a side exit and gotten me out before he could come back to kill me, which was something.

When I'd woken up I'd half hoped the entire sequence had just been a nightmare, and that today was still the day of the party. That hope had lasted until I'd checked my calender application, and then gotten the message from Trena indicating that she was giving me the day off because she was too hungover to work.

Which left me waiting for the inevitable really.

I prepared as best I could, made myself a heavy breakfast, added a few extra run-times to my door's lock, double-checked that all of my security systems were running, then I settled down to try and enjoy the day.

Needless to say, that plan didn't exactly go well. I jumped at almost every loud noise from the screen, found myself needlessly checking my cameras, and overall scaring myself stupid.

_Still... I have to give it to her. That was well played. Really shouldn't have needled her like I did._

I was staring into my mostly empty fridge, wondering what I could eat for lunch when the doorbell chimed. My throat went dry until I brought up my omni-tool, my face pulling into a confused frown as I saw who it was.

Still, I double-checked the side cams before I opened the door to stare flatly at Nysnsi Shaaryak. She was dressed far more casually in a light dress that hung on her slender frame, although this time I wasn't nearly as tempted to check her out. What's more, she didn't look nearly as hungover as I was. Which was totally unfair _._ "Do I want to know how you knew were I lived?"

Her bottom eyes narrowed while her top set glanced around warily. Neither of us bothered to tilt our heads in greeting. "My uncle... wishes for me to apologize."

You know, when I'd woken up in a panic, this wasn't something I'd imagined happening.

"I...You... what?"

There was a little growl, "Can I come in or are you going to make me stand out here?"

My own eyes narrowed, a spike of anger driving the confused stutter away. "Here is fine. I spent all night worried that Xerol was going to kill me."

"He...fine. All right. I should not have insulted you at the bar. I should not have made a spectacle of you on the dance floor. I should not have tried to get my uncle to go after you." She bared her teeth in obvious irritation, "Happy? You got out of there fast enough he couldn't interrogate you, so he cornered me instead. I can't lie to my own patriarch, not well enough anyway, so he got the entire story."

"Oh." I felt lighter almost at once, like thirty pounds lighter. "All right, then yes, I'm a bit happy."

"Can I go now?"

"We've been over this, I'm not stopping you." My hands waved vaguely as some of the irritation at her attitude came back, this time without the alcoholic filter that had made it seem mildly amusing. "Go inflict yourself on someone else."

That murderous expression was back, but whatever she was going to say in response was cut off when I slapped the control panel to shut the door in her face.

_Good riddance._

I'd turned away when the doorbell rang again. "What!?"

Her voice was muted thanks to the door, even though I was pretty sure she was shouting, "Open up! Please!"

"Athame's tits..." The door slid open again, "What now?"

She still looked plenty mad, but she jerkily dipped her head to the left and managed to force the words out. "Do you... do you accept my apology, friend of my uncle?"

"Yes, fine. Whatever." I tipped my head to the right minutely enough that she wouldn't take offense, just sufficiently to acknowledge what she'd done. "I accept. Anything more to say?"

"Why do you have to be so _aggravating_ human?" Her hands flew upwards as she gave another one of those seething sigh sounds, "I'm _trying_ to apologize."

"And you did a fucked up job of it." I shot back, "You practically set me up to get killed! How many of your people were at that party? You think they'd have taken me at my word that I wasn't trying to force myself onto you?"

"I... fine... all right, I'm sorry, I've already had to apologize to my uncle for having to explain to everyone that it's not your fault." There was definite pain there, she wasn't enjoying the fact that she gone a bit overboard and was being forced to admit that she'd done so. "I should have thought of that before I did it."

"Fine..." I blew out a long breath, then tilted my head to the left slightly, "I'm sorry as well. I shouldn't have dug into you like that."

Her upper eyes blinked slightly, and she had to shake herself before she tipped her head a miniscule degree to the right. "I... I accept, friend of my uncle."

"So.. any Batarian customs for apologies I should know about? You don't have a sniper on me right now do you?"

"Regrettably I do not. My uncle does have one of his Harath'krem tailing me somewhere around here."

I had no idea what that even was, but it probably meant some kind of bodyguard. "To make sure you actually did apologize?"

Her lips quivered slightly, "Something like that."

I groaned as the coin dropped, "To make sure that we _both_ apologized?"

"Yes."

"All right..." Resisting the urge to tilt my head, I let out a slight breath. "Well, we both did."

Her head tilted directly forwards in the tiniest of nods, "We did."

"So..." My arms crossed as I leaned against the door-frame, "Not going to storm off in an aristocratic huff? Not desperate to get away from lowborn scum like me?"

"Well you _are_ human, so you're not truly lowborn. Merely alien, I misspoke in my anger." Her own arms crossed, "And I already asked to come in."

I blinked before narrowing my eyes, staring at nothing in particular over her shoulder to avoid having to pick a set to look at. "You're not going to try and get me in hot water with Xerol again are you?"

"By the fourth pillar I swear that I shall not," Her arms uncrossed, hands coming together in what seemed like a religious gesture. "I merely wished to make you lunch to complete my apology, away from my uncle's Harath'krem."

Said Harath-whatever was apparently an Asari who'd stopped bothering to make herself inconspicuous, instead settling in against the walkway railing a few doors down and watching us with a smirk on her face. She didn't look like much, average height, average build, and was only wearing light armor with a pistol on her belt... But I somehow doubted that Xerol Shaaryak would let his niece wander around without someone more than capable of defending her.

I grunted quietly. "Are you going to try and poison me?"

"Would you like me to?"

"No, not really." _Probably not a good idea, better to politely decline._ Well, that's what I thought at least, but what came out of my mouth was, "Come on in."

I stepped aside as she came in, and made a point to shut and lock the door after her. While she walked deeper into the apartment, I watched on the cameras as the guard came into sight, settling herself into place against the wall next to my door. If I hadn't bothered adding more cameras, she'd have been invisible where she was. _Well, let's hope she doesn't feel the need to break in._

"So, is this some kind of religious tenet? You're obligated to cook a meal for someone in apology?"

"Hardly. This is me trying to avoid my uncle for a few hours." There was the sound of her rifling through my fridge as I made my way towards the kitchen, "And while you're hardly my first choice of company, you're better than Ghai out there."

"That sounded dangerously close to a compliment."

"A varren is probably better company than she is." She paused moving and speaking for a moment, then shook her head. "That is unfair, she is extremely capable as a fighter and trainer, but you're more likely to finder water in the desert than hear her speak a dozen words in a day."

I chuckled as I entered the kitchen proper, "Ah, there we go. Wouldn't want to think you actually wanted to be around me now."

For the briefest moment I thought her teal skin darkened to a maroon as she turned away, but her voice was as scathing as usual. "What do humans eat?"

"If it's in the fridge I'll eat it, otherwise why would I have it?"

"Must you answer everything with sarcasm?" She yanked out a few containers of a local fish harder than was strictly necessary, and moved on to grabbing a few potential sides. "Where are your spices?"

"Right, two cabinets down. Knifes and cutting board are in the one to the left. Your other left. There you go."

The rest of the meal preparation went smoothly enough. I stopped needling her, she stopped antagonizing me, and between us we managed to make a reasonable little meal. She'd done a pretty good job on the fish itself, not burning anything and using a pleasant combination of spices. The noodles and little shrimp-like crustaceans she'd done on the side weren't quite as I preferred to make them, but were hardly bad.

"So..." I asked after a few minutes of silent eating had passed, "Why are you avoiding your uncle? Besides last night."

"Do you hear me asking you personal questions?" She stabbed a cut of her fish hard enough for the fork to screech against the plate, making us both wince at the noise. "Ah.. I'm sorry. I am supposed to be your guest."

"Don't worry about it," My shoulders rose and fell, "If you don't want to asnwer, you don't have to. Just trying to make conversation really."

Her lower eyes narrowed slightly, but she nodded. "Well.. how does my uncle know you? He mentioned Trena T'laria, but he was not clear on how you were his friend."

"Friend is... a bit strong," I admitted. "I mean, I've only met him a few times. I'm friendly with him sure, I'd hardly want to insult the leader of a community. Especially when he provides a good portion of my boss's work."

"Miss T'laria?"

"Yeah. I'm her assistant."

All four of her eyes narrowed slightly, "So you are a mechanic?"

"Mechanic, programmer, engineer.. bit of everything really." I took a sip of water before continuing, "I was... call it attacked by an Asari a few months ago and wound up pretty screwed up mentally. Trena was kind enough to offer me a job and help me going again."

"Attacked?" Her fork dropped, "What do... oh, _attacked._ Was it.. what do they call them, one of their demons?"

"Yeah." It was my turn to stab into my noodles harder than I needed to, "I got lucky. A Matriarch was tailing her and killed her before she could finish me off."

"Oh... that... explains a bit."

I blinked rapidly, "Huh? Explains what?"

"My uncle has a very high opinion of you." She tilted her head down, regarding her food passively, "I mean, you are just a human but you survived... _that_. That is rather impressive actually."

"I got lucky. Nothing more." My lying soul writhed a bit, but I very firmly told it to shut up. "Anyway... that's not really good table conversation."

Her mouth twitched into a small smile, "No, but is that why you.. are as you are? Sarcastic and flippant? Because you went through that?"

"I... maybe? I've only got bits and pieces of memory from longer than a few months ago."

"Oh. I was wondering.." She suddenly seemed embarrassed, "I mean.. most humans would have never let me do what I did last night. I was... expecting you to strike me actually. To call me demeaning names. But... you just tolerated it. Even when I forced myself on you."

And suddenly that made even more sense. Why she'd grabbed me so abruptly and roughly, made sure that everyone knew that she intended to make me dance. Hell, why she'd made sure to keep me up against her when we did. And for why she'd kissed me... she'd been desperate to provoke _some_ kind of reaction. If I'd done anything like she thought, like most humans in this age probably would have... fuck, I'd have been shot to pieces my furious Batarians on the spot.

_She basically just admitted that she was trying to murder you._

"So... I think you owe me another apology." My voice came out flat and dead, the food no longer tasting nearly as good.

She flinched back at my tone, averting both sets of eyes, gulping visibly. "I... I'm sorry. Please. I didn't... I mean. I thought you were just some human merc getting off on insulting the Batarian girl. I didn't... I'm sorry!"

Dammit... your father would be ashamed of you right now, terrifying a lady, regardless of what she did. You didn't do anything stupid like that, and she didn't actually do anything beside put you in a place where you could fuck up, so the point is moot.

My brain worked out the logic of it, even as the rest of me sullenly seethed in anger. "It's... all right."

"No, I mean," She hesitantly reached out to touch my left hand with her right, "I... you... I just... I was trying to get you shot!"

"Yeah... and you apologized, and I think you meant it." I blew out a long breath, not pulling my hand away, "I mean, I'm still kind of pissed, but I didn't get shot and even got a kiss out of it. So... it's all right."

"I... all right." She gave me a gentle squeeze, "I'm... should I go?"

My lips tugged into a small smile, "Do I look like a krogan? I can hardly eat all of this food on my own."

Nynsi visibly struggled with the gentle tease before ducking her head to the left quite a bit, "I... no, of course you don't. Though... sometimes you have the mouth of one."

"Trena is a bad influence." I nodded sagely as I took a sip from my drink, letting the cold water wash away the tense knot in my chest. It didn't go away, not entirely, but it did shrink a bit. "A very bad influence in most things actually."

"I can believe that."

Lunch passed into the afternoon, and Nynsi stayed throughout. Mostly we just talked, though she made a point to refuse to let me help clean. I got the feeling much of her sudden attitude shift was guilt induced, and that she'd probably go back to her superior than thou ways eventually. But for now, it was nice to have someone around to talk to who wouldn't steer the conversation towards sex or violence after a handful of minutes.

I did manage to get it out of her that she was also a fan of the Talonfists, and convinced her to stay around and watch the afternoon's game with me. They weren't playing, but it was a good enough excuse as any for her to remain. The old couch had finally been replaced with one I'd found at a local thrift store. It wasn't much to look at compared to most Asari furniture, but it was damned comfortable. _And that's what matters._

Of course, my relaxed afternoon after the stress of our earlier conversation went right out the window around half-time. I'd been contentedly congratulating myself on likely making a new friend when she'd come back from the bathroom. But rather than return to the other end of the couch.. she'd sat directly next to me, and actually leaned in a bit.

Which had nearly given m a heart attack on its own.

I'd practically become paralyzed with indecision at that point as my brain frantically tried to work through everything that it could possibly mean. Maybe she's still feeling guilty about last night? Maybe she actually does want to stick around? Maybe she is thinking about... more than that? Maybe it doesn't mean anything?

Then she'd actually pressed herself closer, reaching up firmly to grab my left arm and then draping it around her shoulders in much the same way as she'd pointedly led me around the dance floor.

_Oh.._

Thankfully nothing more than that happened. I made very sure that hands didn't wander anywhere inappropriate, and hers stayed demurely in her lap after she brought her legs up, tucking them sideways. We watched the rest of the game like that, cheering and heckling both teams more or less at random.

The game itself was winding down, Irrail up by four against the Western Reaches, when my omni-tool began to flash with an incoming call.

I glanced at the number before answering, "Scales, what's up?"

" _Since you're probably laying on your new couch, a ceiling I would hope, ape. I was planning on heading to Forever tonight, you in?"_

Nynsi glanced up at me with her upper eyes before nodding firmly, "Yeah, w-I'll be there."

_"Excellent, I'll be.. wait a second. You were about to say 'we'."_

"What?" I promptly gave myself a zero out of ten in acting skills.

" _Athame's ass ape! You've got a girl over!"_ I could practically see her jumping up and down in excitement, " _Is she hot? What species? How many times did you go at it?"_

My face started to burn, and Nynsi stared at me incredulously. "Scales..."

" _No way, you're giving me details or I'm going to bust down your door and ask her!"_

I rolled my eyes in exasperation, "We had lunch. That's it. Sorry to burst your vacsuit."

" _Seriously? Is she ugly?"_

"No!' The protest was out by reflex, and I felt my skin flush again as my companion's lips pulled back into a grin, "Seriously scales.. I'll see you at Forever."

" _Wait-_ " My finger firmly hit the disconnect button, cutting her off before she could embarrass me further.

I glanced at Nynsi as I shut my omni-tool off, my tone pleading. "Please tell me you have a car?"

"You don't?" Her eyes narrowed slightly before widening, "Right... three months of pay as a mechanic's assistant."

"Bingo."

Four black eyes blinked in confusion. "What?"

"Ah... never mind." I was pretty good about only speaking in Asari, which either everyone understood or had translators for, but occasionally a bit of century and a half old American-English still slipped out. "Human thing. Um, you are armed right?"

She gave me a look that plainly told me that it was a stupid ass question.

"Right... right. Your friend joining us?"

"My uncle would kill us both if I sent her away. Not that she would let me in the first place." Her head shook as she rose to her feet, "I keep telling him that I'm no longer a child, but he is still my patriarch, and after my parents... well, let's just say I put up with it."

I nodded, pretending to not have heard the bit about her parents. "All right, give me a bit to change."

She followed me as far as the doorway to my room, but leaned against the wall as I closed it behind me, her voice carrying through the door. "So.. that was Trena T'laria, my uncle's preferred contractor."

"Yeah." _Where is it.. there!_ I grabbed a plain blue shirt that was quite comfortable before digging out a vest festooned with pockets, along with a basic barrier system built into the fabric. "Sorry about that."

"I've heard worse." And I didn't doubt that for a moment, "But why was she so surprised that you had.. .company?"

I was glad she couldn't see my face flush. "Well... let's just say I haven't had anyone over since the incident. She finds that to be unnatural."

There was a long pause, "So.. you haven't been with anyone since then? No one from your past has tried to find you?"

"Apparently I didn't have much in the way of friends, of any kind. Or family. I try not to think about it to be honest." I tugged on my going-out-to Forever pants, double-checking the shield plates on the thighs and my shins after I got them fully on. "I don't suppose you've got a change of clothes? Forever has been a bit... well, it's close to some bad territory."

"I have a change of clothes in my car, I will switch when we get there... what would you have done if I did not?"

"Told you it was a bad idea to go. And probably made you dinner here."

There was a long pause before she murmured something I couldn't make out.

"What was that?"

"Nothing!"

 _Ok..._ My fingers finished tying off my boots. After that it was a quick check of my main shield generator on my belt along with my smg, then I was out the door. "So, where'd you park?"

Unsurprisingly, Ghai the Asari was still present, watching some kind of program on her omni-tool as we exited my place. She didn't say anything, just fell in next to Nynsi as we headed towards the public parking zone at the far end of the walkway. Fortunately, God or Athame or whoever was watching out for us because Trena didn't make an appearance while we were _en route_. I had no idea if Batarians understood the concept of chivalry or not, but I still made sure to reach her car first to hold the door open for both her and Ghai, which drew confused looks from both of them.

The drive there was not nearly as pleasant. Ghai was apparently also the designated driver... who drove like a grandmother. Far under the car's top speed, or even optimal speed, and made sure to follow the air control's recommendations _exactly_ to the letter. We weren't even halfway there before Nynsi had irritably clambered into the back seat and kicked me to the front before drawing a privacy screen down so that she could change.

Needless to say, she was done well before we arrived, having ditched the dress for a more practical partial-military outfit similar to what Ghai and Xerol's other security types tended to wear. I did have to admit it clung to her strong figure rather nicely, though I also spent a few moments admiring the heavy pistol on each hip. Both were heavily customized, one featuring a scope and lengthened barrel, while the other looked like it had a shredder mod in place.

It made me briefly embarrassed about my simple little gun, and I made a mental note to track down some upgrades.

After landing as slowly and safely as she'd done everything else, we both practically leaped from the speeder in the effort to get away from Ghai. Who still had yet to say a single word, even when Nynsi had told her where to take us.

Of course, I'd have stayed in the damn speeder if I'd known that Trena was impatiently waiting to ambush me the moment we walked in through the door.

"By the goddess ape, you bedded Xerol's niece!?" She'd drawn up short of tackling me, instead staring at Nynsi with her mouth hanging limply open.

"He did not bed me." My newest Batarian friend sighed through her teeth, "I merely was at his apartment to apologize for last night."

"You mean trying to set him up." Gem colored eyes flashed dangerously, "I was going to have a word with you about that."

"Woah, scales, it's all right." I half-stepped between them, "She's apologized. And it's not like she did anything to me."

Trena's upper lip curled back, "She put you on the spot!"

 _True, and I'm still not sure how to feel about this whole thing._ "Yeah, but it would have been my choice to fall for it, and I didn't. She didn't even poison me at lunch."

"Yeah well... guess you've got good self control girl. Xerol already talked with you?" She waited for the other woman to nod before grunting, "Good. I'll back off then, but you do any shit like that again and I'll tear you apart, Xerol's protection or no."

Nynsi's eyes blinked rapidly, but she managed to tilt her head a bit to the left all the same, "I... yes. My uncle always speaks well of you."

"Really? I'll have to get on him about that, must be going soft. Now come on, Aethyta's out tonight, so no need to worry about getting bounced if we get wild."

I rolled my eyes as we trailed her to the bar, "You mean _when you_ get wild."

She gave a wicked laugh, "Same thing really, or you going to leave me out to dry?"

"You see what I have to put up with?" I murmured to Nynsi as we sat, "Woman is going to be the death of me."

Two of her dark eyes tracked Trena haranguing an exhausted looking Tris, while the others remained on me. Her lip twitched into a small grin, "I would hope not, though I do begin to see what you mean by her influence."

"Trust me, you haven't even scratched the surface."

"Usual Cie?" Tris appeared, already reaching for the bottle. I nodded, and she turned to Nynsi, "And you, maiden? What's your poison?"

She had the good sense not to do much more than tighten her lips a bit at Tris before ordering a glass of Thessian wine.

"Wow, not a word. I'm proud of you."

That got me a little growl, "I _am_ capable of acting appropriately for my station."

"You don't really have to worry about that kind of thing here," I shrugged with a smile, "Just smile as you insult them and take it when they give it back."

"Life lessons from a human... will wonders never cease."

I burst out laughing and lightly punched her shoulder, "There you go, that's the kind of attitude Forever runs on. The more scathing the better as far as Aethyta is concerned."

"Now now ape, be nice to the girl." Trena slung an arm around me neck and took a long pull from her bottle, "Now, those maidens giggling in the corner. Which one?"

I rolled my eyes, but glanced over all the same. There were four of them in total, with three giggling and talking amongst themselves, stealing looks at the three of us, while the fourth was blushing madly at whatever they were saying."Far right, with the tats, blushing."

"Really? Huh... oh, yeah, I see it now. Aw, such a cute little thing. I suppose I'd better go rescue her. You two have fun, I'm going to go introduce myself."

"And... there's nothing between your and her?" Nynsi whispered quietly after Trena detached herself and moved off, and I had to smother a smile at the.. slightly possessive tone to her voice.

"She only goes for other Asari." A finger reached up and tapped my head, "And I've got a condition from that incident. It would probably kill me. That's just how she is, you get used to it."

"I see." She took a slow sip from her wine, watching as Trena bent over to whisper something to the young girl that made her blush worsen significantly. "It's like watching-"

I never found out what it was like watching, because at that moment the fucking entrance exploded, sending bits of wooden shrapnel flying into the place.

The reactions of everyone present was rather mixed. Apart from the three of us, it was just the four young maidens, Ghai, and Tris present thanks to the early hour. Trena had a barrier up around her and the now screaming group, and was snapping at them to get under the booth's table. Ghai, who had taken her own seat at the far end of the bar, was already blurring into motion, her gun up as she smoothly head for the cover Trena had thrown up.

For her part, Tris had tossed up a similar barrier, her entire body alight. "Over the bar you two!"

Nynsi was a half a moment ahead of me, but we both scrambled up and over, not looking back as the roar of mass accelerated weapons started to sound.

The moment we were secure she dropped the barrier and drew a shotgun from a compartment she must have slapped open the moment before she'd used her ability. "Fucking True Sons!"

_Oh. Them again._

My smg was in my hands without any fumbling this time, and I blew out a long breath before rising up enough to lay out the weapon on the counter-top. Tris's shotgun roared as the adrenaline kicked in, and I felt my hands following my eyes as I looked for targets.

One of them, a human man, was already down and bleeding in the doorway. Ahead of him what looked like a Turian had managed to make it to the first booth, ducking behind the wall for cover and screaming his head off for help.

The help came in the form of a pair of Batarians, or would have come if we hadn't been ready. One of Nynsi's heavy pistols barked, Tris blasted away with her shotgun, and I fired controlled bursts from my gun as they rushed in. The first poor bastard barely made it through the doorway before tumbling down, his blood spraying everywhere. His companion made it maybe a meter, mostly because his friend had absorbed most of our shots, before Nynsi's monster pistol blew his head apart into bits of flesh and brain matter.

"You lot stay there!" Trena barked at the cowering maidens, her own pistol warily tracking towards the doorway. "Tris! Anyone watching the back?"

"Handle it!"

She didn't bother replying, darting across the open space and vaulting the bar in a smooth motion, she turned and dashed into the back. Ghai gave Nyn a quick glance, jerked her chin in that direction, and then was off without a word. She cleared the bar even more gracefully than Trena had, and vanished into the kitchens within seconds.

The Turian managed to find his voice a moment later, "Hey! Bluies! We've got this place surrounded, so give up the old broad!"

_Aethyta?_

I exchanged a confused look with Tris before the idiot kept speaking. "We'll let you all go if you just drag her out here!"

"You got carnage rounds on that thing?" I muttered as quietly as I could. Tris nodded, her lips pulling back into a feral grin as her fingers flew across the weapon. Nysnsi settled in beside me, all of her eyes firmly focused down range.

It hadn't surprised me that Aethyta had made sure that the walls were relatively bullet resistant, but that didn't mean jack to the shotgun when it roared again. More wooden shrapnel whizzed over our heads, and a few glasses shattered to shower us with booze. There was also a loud, flanging cry of pain as our friend dove out of the alcove. Neither of us bothered to give him time to get his act together, and blue joined the red on the floor after a few shots each.

"Slide down," Nynsi grabbed my arm, "Come on. We don't want them to manage to get in and take cover at the end."

I nodded, trying to not twitch as my heart hammered. "Right."

Tris nodded as we darted past her, both staying below the level of the bar, until we reached the end nearest to the doorway and set ourselves up again.

I licked my lips nervously as gunfire sounded from the back, a male something screaming in pain before another shot ended his voice. _Think Cieran, think. What can you do here? If we had some mines... mines!_

Hardly daring to do so, I ducked back under the bar and started frantically typing away on my omni-tool. "Cieran! What are you doing?"

"Setting up my tech mines. I've got a few on me," I told her quietly, "I just need.. there! I've got three. Their shields are shit, you want cryo or incinerate?"

"Incinerate. This place won't burn." She glanced down at Tris. "Will it?"

Tris shook her head firmly, "Not a chance. Can you set them remotely?"

"Of course." I was properly insulted by that question. I wasn't much of an engineer by Mass Effect standards, not yet, but I could do that much at least. I dug the tiny grenade out of my hip pocket, tapped my omni-tool to set it, then raised myself back up and tossed it. The little floating disk flicked threw the air, affixing itself to the wall next to the door without a sound.

Just in time for a new asshole to start talking outside, "Hey! In the bar!"

"What!" Tris raised her voice to shout back, "You done already?"

"Hardly bitch! Turn over the bluie named Aethyta or we burn this place to the ground with you in it!"

The bartender laughed long and hard, "Good luck with that you fucking pyjak!"

"There going to rush us soon." Nynsi murmured into my ear, "We're a ways out, but someone will still have heard the blasts. If they don't hurry up security will be all over them."

I nodded to show that I'd heard, and licked my lips again, trying to stay focused. This was hardly like the last time. Then it had been bang-bang-bang. Literally. Door open, door closed, people entered, people died, that was it. No thinking required until later.

Now... there were three corpses, that I was firmly ignoring, staining the metal flooring with their blood, and we were waiting for an unknown number of enemies to charge us. Our position was good., but there just wasn't enough space between the doorway and the bar to make a good killing zone. And if even a few got it, shitty shields or not, we would be easy targets stuck behind the bar.

_Well then.. just have to make sure that they don't get that far, won't you?_

Fortunately, the military elite they weren't. Rather than bursting in silently, or worse, using more explosives to open a _new_ door, they came yelling and screaming straight in threw the tiny front entrance.

A human and a salarian died first, too concerned with getting over the bodies rather than shooting at us. A Batarian trio died harder, a few of their rounds ricocheting off of our shields, and the last might have made it if Tris hadn't managed to throw him back with a biotic push. I saved the mine until a pair of Turians darted in, a third form visible just behind them.

The explosion was shockingly muted. A brief flash of fire, and both aliens dropped screaming, frantically rolling around to try and put themselves out. Tris put them both down with a pair of quick blasts before ducking to let her weapon cool off. Of course, that revealed the third individual, who proved to be a well built Salarian gleaming with tech armor. His thin face was set with rage, and I barely had time to register a mine of his own before he flung it towards us.

I grabbed Nynsi and hauled her down went it exploded with arcs of lightning, my shield generator shrieking warningly as the overload drained it. My companion, her own shields shimmering and intact, gave me a startled look before quickly rising up, her pistol barking.

_No shields... no shields... no, no way I'm cowering here while they fight him._

Jerking back upright, I watched as the Salarian, his own shields falling, dove into the only booth none of us could really get a shot at him.

_Sentinel armor... armor._

My left hand left my weapon, grabbing another mine from my pocket. _Need to get these set to launch from my omni-tool.._

Pausing only to make sure it was set to incinerate, I tossed it onto our side of the wall covering him and then firmly reached to my other hand to tap the detonation command. There was another explosion of fire and splinters, along with a startled Salarian cursing up a storm, but he stayed put.

 _Damn, this guy's isn't a regular gang banger._ I grabbed my last tech mine, and was about to throw when Nynsi grabbed my wrist. "Wait... now!"

Not bothering to ask stupid questions, I threw it straight through the whole my last one had made, and triggered it a moment later. At the same moment it went off, Tris fired off another carnage round, and this time our opponent _did_ come tumbling out, shouting in pain as he did so.

Much like his companions, he didn't last more than a few seconds before Nynsi and I both blasted through what little armor he had left.

I let out a tight breath and sagged, half closing my eyes as I heard Trisren shout towards the back room. "Trena, you still alive back there?"

Her voice called back a moment later. "Yeah, got a bit singed, but we're all right. How's the ape?"

Tris gave me a quick smile, "He did good, so did his girl."

I didn't bother correcting her, just blew out a long breath and kept watching the entrance until Illium security called in to confirm our identities.

_Well... fuck. What the hell was all this about?_

* * *

  **Next up is Chapter 7: The Offer**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well.. how about that. This chapter actually went off of my outline and rather wrote itself as I got into the characters, but I like where it went. I'm actually adjusting things a bit because of it but I think the story will turn out the better.
> 
> Well, Nynsi has admitted to her mistake, much as Cieran had to sheepishly admit to his own. Though to be fair to him, hers was a bit worse. Following that up with a nice little gun fight.. always exciting times to be had on Illium. We'll see what all that was about in the next chapter, as the characters try to figure out just what the hell the True Sons have against Aeythyta.
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one.
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	7. The Offer

_I don't own Mass Effect, nor will I profit from this story._

* * *

**Act I: Chapter 7: The Offer**

Needless to say, the cops didn't just let us leave on our own this time.

Self defense though it was, the bar was technically a public area, and since the owner, Aehtyta, wasn't there, we were stuck trying to explain what the hell had just happened.

Thankfully, none of us had been seriously hurt, which still boggled my mind. Trena had some burns from someone who'd tried to use an incinerate on her, but apart from that we just had some cuts and scrapes from splinters and bits of exploding bottle. The medic with the cops had extracted anything that needed to be and patched us all up quick as you please... then the questions had started.

The Detective was a tiny little waif of a thing, she couldn't have been much more than five two and was slender for her size. She'd also had to give up on interviewing Trena after the equally short but far burlier Asari had done nothing but try and flirt with her the entire time.

Which meant she'd been questioning Nynsi and I for the last hour.

"All right, so you have no idea why the True Sons would attack a bar out here in the outskirts, looking for a Matriarch who's all but disappeared from public life?" It was the tenth or so variation of the same question. I knew it was some kind of interrogative technique, and that it probably worked. It also probably spoke well of her that she'd been nothing but polite and apologetic. Of course, that would have counted for me if I was exhausted, mildly in shock, and too damned annoyed about the constant questions to care what I said anymore.

Thankfully, Nynsi was still in control of her brain. And her mouth. Her fingers tightened hard into my arm to stop me from saying anything before she spoke up, "That is correct detective." Her head had been tilted slightly to the right the entire time, which still made me want to smile, but the detective seemed entirely unaware that she was snubbing her. "We are acquainted with the Matriarch, as many in this region are, but we cannot say that we know her well enough to answer such a thing."

Skin tightened as the Asari narrowed her blue eyes at us, "I see. Well, until we can track her down and get some answers I'd advise you both to stay on planet. And since we don't know if any of the Sons transmitted their attack out, I'd recommend you both volunteer to go into protective custody."

"Fuck no." I winced as fingers dug deep enough to leave bruises, "I mean.. we can take of ourselves, detective."

"I'm sure." Her omni-tool shut as she stood up from the stool she'd been sitting on, "I'm Detective Wear'an, look me up in the Security directory if you change your minds." She visibly steeled herself before turning back to Trena, who licked her lips slowly as the officer made her way towards her.

"You need to learn when to _not_ run your mouth." Nynsi whispered harshly in my ear, though her fingers finally loosened their death grip, "You could have gotten us both thrown in jail."

"Sorry." I murmured back, ducking my head sheepishly, before frowning at the sight of my hands shaking lightly. _Dammit_. I firmly shoved them both into my pockets before she could notice. "Just... let's track down Aethyta. The sooner she can deal with this the better."

Two of her eyes blinked at me, "Why? Security and the bartender can handle that."

_Because she's important to the future of the galaxy in her own way, and if someone is out to kill her I'd rather try and stop it. Not that she did die in canon.. but who the hell knows, maybe me just being in this bar is enough to change things. Either way, I'm not going to sit here and let a gang... merc group... whatever try and kill her._

"Because she's sort of a friend, and we _did_ just demolish her bar, and I think she'd rather Trena and I explain all this rather than Ms Personality over there. You can probably head home if you want."

"I... no, I'll go with. I can call my uncle on the way, maybe he knows something. Do you know where she might be?" The fact that I'd told the detective that I had no idea didn't seem to bother her at all.

 _Possibly._ "No, but I have a good idea who does." I jerked my head towards Tris, "See if you can round up your friend, I'll be right back."

She nodded, moving off to rescue Ghai from another officer who looked apoplectic at the woman's responses, or lack thereof, to whatever she was asking. Tris, meanwhile, was leaning heavily on the bar and massaging the bridge of her nose while a pair of Security agents sat on stools on either side of her.

"Hey Tris. Already done your turn?" I jerked a thumb at Wear'an.

"No, looks like they're saving me for last. Athame's tits, I'll be lucky to hit my rack before sunrise at this rate."

"Yeah... say, Nynsi and I were hoping to find someplace quiet to get a few more drinks. You know, to help us calm down a bit after earlier." _Please understand what I'm asking._

Tris regarded my coolly for a moment before slowly nodding. "Looking for your bitter usual or something more normal?"

I had to fight to keep anything besides polite interest off my face, as the officers watched us boredly."You know me, bitter Asari rum all the way."

"Place called Eternity in Nos Astra, tell the bartender I owe you one for tonight. Should be good for a few drinks if nothing else."

"Thanks." Two fingers from my right hand touched my brow in salute before I turned away. "See you later Tris."

The officers let me head out through the ruined door without any problem, though once I was outside the few standing guard gave me friendly grins.

"Nice job in there human." A few murmured similar compliments, along with a few thanks for getting rid of a few more racist assholes. "If it were up to me I'd hire you lot to help us put more of them down." A scarred up old matron told me as I crossed the police line, "Pyjaks like that give mercenaries a bad name.

I quietly thanked anyone who said something like that, but didn't stop until I'd gotten to Nynsi's car, two forms already visible inside. The passenger side door swung open as I approached, and I let out a relieved breath on seeing who was sitting where. "Oh thank the goddess."

Nynsi, seated in the driver seat, gave me a strange look as I heaved myself in. "You worship Athame?"

"Nope. Just trying to sound like a local. How am I doing?"

"Hit and miss." Her lips twitched, "Though that's better than sounding all human."

The banter did wonders to ease the stress, and I rose a mostly steady hand to my heart in pain. "Ach, you have wounded me with your words fair lady. How shall I ever recover?"

"I'm sure you'll find a way. Are we waiting for Miss T'laria?" She sounded as though she already knew the answer, but wasn't thrilled about it.

I shrugged mentally. Trena wasn't the easiest person to get along with, being... well, being Trena. But she was still one of her uncle's friends, and more importantly, one of _my_ friends, so if Nynsi wanted to do more than hang out for a day after apologizing, she'd have to get used to her.

"Probably better to." The chair was almost tortuously comfortable, and I let myself sink into it. "Do I want to know how much this car cost?"

"How much do you make in a year?"

"Yeah... no, I don't want to know." _Just like I don't want to know just how Xerol makes enough money to be able to pay for something like this for his niece. Or what your involvement is in his business. Or where he gets most of the stuff he sends to Trena and I to fix._

"I tried contacting my patriarch, he's out at one of his sites right now. They'll have him get back to me as soon as he's done."

_At this time of night? What is he doing... no, Do. Not. Want. To. Know._

Thankfully Trena emerged a few moments later, glancing around before seeing me waving at her through the window.

"No sense of adventure, that matron." She sounded disgusted as she got into the back next to Ghai, "None at all."

"Shot you down huh?" I nodded sympathetically, "It happens. We're heading to a bar called Eternity in Nos Astra proper, Tris said it was a good place to find a bitter drink."

Trena snorted as Nynsi brought the car up off the ground, turning towards the glittering city in the district. "Seriously? And the officers didn't suspect a thing?"

"They were too busy admixing their own reflections."

"Got to love incompetence when it benefits you." There was a long sigh, "Dammit. So much for my plans tonight. Aethyta is going to murder us."

I winced and shrugged, "I'd hope she'd murder the people responsible.. but since we already killed them... Well, at least you got to hit on two different women in one night."

"Yeah, but it's not like I got anything out of it. Although, you weren't bad, back there." My mouth dropped open as she directed the last bit to Ghai, the silent guard's eyes going wide as she almost frantically pushed herself as far back into the corner as she could. Not that it really helped, she was a good six inches taller than Trena, even if the mechanic had far more muscle on her. "What? Are you saying no?"

Ghai's mouth worked a few times, but nothing came out.

"I'll take that as a 'go ahead'." Before either the mute guard or I could do anything, she unbuckled herself, slid over the foot between them, and pressed her lips against Ghai's. I had a brief glimpse of Ghai's eyes showing nothing but startled confusion before they practically rolled back.

"Please tell me they aren't making out." Nynsi sounded disgusted, very firmly keeping both sets of eyes off of the rear view mirrors. Ghai had apparently given in, because her arms shakily reached up to wrap around the smaller mechanic, practically pulling the stockier woman into her lap. "By the first pillar, they are, aren't they?"

Turning away I irritably slapped the button to raise the privacy screen. "Don't ask questions you don't want to know the answer to. Let's just hope that's all they do."

"If I hear _anything_ I'm turning off the inertial dampeners and putting us into a dive."

Trena's voice called back through the screen, " _Spoilsports._ "

"You... don't think they would, do you? I mean.. Ghai never says _anything_ , so I don't know but she doesn't... I mean..." I couldn't help but laugh as Nynsi couldn't stop herself from babbling in panic at the thought of two Asari having sex in the back seat of her car, "I... are you _laughing_ at me?"

"N-No!" I bit my tongue and tried to smother the smile.

"You _are!"_ Her right hand left the wheel and firmly punched my shoulder, "You human pyjack! You're laughing at me!"

"I'm s-sorry!" I leaned away from her before she could throw any more punches and started cackling. "It's just... your face... oh god."

She refused to speak to me for the rest of the trip, only growling irritably when I tried to offer wagers on what we'd find in the back when we landed. Personally I doubted even Trena would be _that_ bold, and we hadn't heard or felt anything, but... well let's just say the reputation Asari have in games isn't entirely unfounded.

Eventually we pulled into an aching familiar parking area, and I could practically feel the controller in my hands, watching Shepard wander this area, running odd jobs for Liara. Of course, in games there wasn't an angry old Matriarch impatiently waiting for the car to land.

"Is... that her?" Nynsi asked cautiously.

"Yeah..." My mouth went a bit dry, the antics of our trip forgotten. Aethyta looked, well, pissed wasn't strong enough. She looked like she was about to blood rage. It wasn't quite that late yet, but the area still seemed almost abandoned. Only a few non-Asari were around, apparently not quite processing the danger of a pacing Matriarch.

"I could boost us off."

"I think she'd just drag the car down on her own and be even angrier about it." I grimaced, "Put us down."

We'd barely settled illegally into the center of the platform and opened the doors before the ancient Asari crossed the distance between us, her voice just short of furious. "What are you doing _here?_ "

If you've ever been face to face with an angry thousand year old Asari who could literally reduce you to atoms... you're probably in the same situation as I am. If you haven't, take it from me, it's fucking terrifying. Getting shot at? No big deal at all compared to a seething Aethyta. "Your bar... well..."

"Got shot up, I fucking know."

"Oh." Eloquence, thy name is Cieran. "Tris called?"

"Of course she fucking did. Athame's tits you didn't think she'd leave me in the dark? Of course I should fucking hit her blue ass with a singularity for telling you lot where I was. Though I suppose I should be glad it's just you two and not T'laria." There was an awkward silence as Nynsi and I both went very still. "By the... TRENA."

Trena, her clothing thoroughly disheveled but at least still on her person, or placed back on there, emerged sheepishly from the back door. Ghai at least had the good sense to stay inside the vehicle. "Honored Matriarch."

"Don't you honored matriarch me you young shit. At least act like yourself while I'm screaming at you! Athame's fucking azure, didn't you learn anything!?"

My friend sucked in a breath as her eyes narrowed, her back straightening, "Fine. We came her to see if you're fucking all right, and to apologize for shooting up your goddess damned bar."

"Of course I'm all right, you think a bunch of young alien punks could take me? Don't bother answering that girl. As for the bar, its' not the first time." I frowned slightly, what the hell was she angry about- "Get that stupid look off your face kid. Why the hell did you morons come out here? You could have blundered right into a damned gunfight or worse."

Nynsi cut in before Trena or I could say something, "Honored Matriarch, we apologize. Your friends merely wished to let you know what happened in person. They did not realize that Tris would have been able to contact you while Illium Security was still there."

"Who are... oh, Xerol's adopted." I started at that, Nynsi hurriedly flicking all of her eyes away from me, "Right. Get your asses out of here then."

"No." Trena crossed her arms defiantly, "Not until you tell us what's going on."

"Watch your tone girl." Her already gravelly voice went even lower in warning.

"You told me to be myself, so I'm fucking demanding you tell me why _we_ almost got _killed_ by people looking for _you._ "

There was a long, tense moment after that. Nynsi looked ready to bolt, either back to the car or for the illusion of safety the doorway ahead provided. I was ready to follow her if it came to that. Not that I really expected to get away, more reflex than anything I suppose.

"There's your damn quad girl, took you long enough." A long breath escaped me in relief, as her tone lowered from something apoplectic to something merely angry. "You lot are involved now anyways, and I always hated leaving people in the dark. Have your guard park that damn thing straight, the three of you are coming with me."

A quick conversation with Ghai, who was clearly embarrassed about the bruises already becoming visible on her chin and neck, and we were off.

Aethyta led us through the familiar corridors, Asari practically trampling over each other as they tried to get out of her way. It had to be some kind of instinctive response, something from back when Matriarchs had probably been the closest things to living gods that Thessia had had. A few I-Sec agents visibly winced at seeing the three of us trailing her, all roughed up with bandages over our cuts and scrapes. But thankfully they weren't stupid enough to try and get in her way, and even seemed to casually delay any alien who looked as if they might be about to do so.

Eternity was just like it was in game. Less of a pure bar than Forever, yet not quite a typical restaurant or lounge, more like a combination of all three. She led us straight through the reasonably thick crowd, eventually jerking her head towards a closed door marked 'Staff Only'.

"In there. I'll be in a minute."

We let ourselves into a cozy little break room, a few scattered chairs around tables lined with magazines and empty glasses. The three of us sat down, glancing at one another as we did. Nynsi looked like she was deeply regretting going out to the bar with us, though she hadn't yet reached the point where she wanted to murder me. Probably just wanted to maim me a bit for ruining her evening. Trena looked... hard. Like she was moments away from exploding with violence. Aethyta's raspy tones had apparently managed to pierce her walls deeper than I'd ever managed.

As for me... I tried to not look nervous, instead aiming for boredom. Trena was ignoring me entirely, but from Nynsi's sidelong glances I wasn't doing very well.

Liara's father stormed in a few minutes later, though she looked a tiny bit more relaxed than she had on the platform. But that was really like comparing a massive tornado to a merely large tornado. Sure, science could tell you there was less destructive power at work, but you were still dead and all your shit was scattered across the county either way.

"All right. First thing, if you lot ever get into a fight like that again, don't run off after." She'd mixed herself a drink at the bar apparently, because she took a long pull before continuing, "I was in the middle of setting people up to watch over you when I found out you'd already left."

"So... just stay put or fort up somewhere?" I interjected as cautiously as I could.

"If you're at Forever then stay there. Otherwise head to Xerol's place." Nynsi blinked rapidly in surprise, "Yeah girl, your uncle already knows all this shit. Long story short, I'm here working for the other Matriarchs, keeping an eye on those assholes."

There wasn't any need to ask who she meant, though privately I was betting that she was talking about both groups. "Anyway, how much do you know about them?"

"They're a legitimate mercenary company on the outside, with strong gang influence." Nynsi spoke quietly, "But no one is sure who approved their charter given their anti-asari views."

"That's a question I'd love the answer to kid." Another, longer drink, "They've gone from being one of a dozen fucking gangs on Omega to a serious bloody concern in the western Terminus. Two years on them and we still don't know shit about that growth, that charters, or how they knew I was the one looking in on 'em."

I licked my lips slowly, "What about that Salarian? I mean, he was... not equipped like the rest. They were just gang members, but he had military level stuff. Armor, weapons."

Aethyta's eyes narrowed, "I need more than that kid. What kind of armor? Corporation? He move like a fighter? Like a veteran?"

"He had a Turian made sub-machine gun, no more than a year out of production." We all glanced at Trena as she reported quickly and mechanically, "His armor was sentinel typed with tech armor enhancements installed and running, probably Elanus built. He'd been in fights before, but he definitely wasn't STG. Looked ex-Eclipse to me."

That got my attention, "Eclipse? Are they trying to steal Salarians away from them?" Now everybody was looking at me and I squirmed from the combined looks. "Well... I mean. We know they don't like Asari, and the Eclipse is dominated by them. If they could convinced Salarians or humans to leave them for the True Sons, and bring their gear with them..."

"Not bad kid. Best we can tell they've been pushing that angle harder than ever after the Eclipse beat the crap out of them last year. Not just the Eclipse though, they've got their main recruiting station on Omega trying to rope in dumb kids and Blue Suns agents too stupid to stick with the stronger group." Well that didn't sound good.

Aethyta sucked in a slow breath, her eyes flicking between us before she spoke again, "Way I see it, you've got a few options right now. Girl," this was directed towards Nynsi, "Your uncle's kept you out of this as best he can. You can keep up with that and hunker down at his place, even these idiots aren't stupid enough to attack him directly. Trena, Cieran. You two are in deeper shit. I don't have the time to babysit you, so you'd have to clear off-world if you don't want to get involved. Thessia's out, I'm not going into why, but the Citadel would be doable."

We both winced, though I'm sure for different reasons. I'd be trading one angry matriarch for another, and merely possible death for almost certain death. I spoke before Trena could, "Or?"

"Or you stay, keep doing what you've been doing, hope they didn't get a good recording of who shot their people to pieces." I didn't need to hear the scorn in her voice to realize that that was a dumb-ass idea to hope for. "Last option... is you join my network. I get some stipend or another, mostly it's been sitting around. I don't need agents when I've got my bars."

The way she said that implied that she had way more than just Eternity and Forever, which made a lot of rather scary sense. If she'd been put here to evaluate a merc group that was vaguely spread out across the planet... holy hell, she could be wired into every bar, reputable or not, on the planet. Hell, no wonder Liara turned out to be such a good shadow broker. It just had to be the genes. "What would the two of-"

"Three." Nynsi cut in, looking affronted that I'd cut her out of this. "I'm sick of being treated like an infant because of who I am related to."

I corrected myself and continued, "Three of us be doing?"

"Stake outs. Listening. Keeping your damn eyes open mostly. I've got permission to call in either a Spectre or a Justicar the moment I catch these pyjaks breaking their contract, but I need hard evidence to do it."

Trena snorted, "What, trying to murder and rape Maidens in the lower levels isn't good enough?"

"Fucking senile old hags." Aethyta's tone was one of complete agreement. "The Justicars would already have cleaned house if they weren't suppressing the damn news coming off world. Scared of a damned incident or some stupid shit."

For the most part, I tuned out their conversation, doing my best to think. I was being recruited by Aethyta to act as her... what, agent? Spy? Mercenary? All of the above? At one point in my life I'd probably be way too excited about this kind of thing. But after getting shot at a couple of times and finding out a bit more than I wanted to about the planet I was stuck on.. excited was hardly the appropriate word. Nervous... exhausted... but not seeing any other choice. I needed the money, I needed the experience, and I needed the contacts that this might give me.

 _Of course, becoming an agent for the Asari government definitely was not in my to-do plans._ _Or even in my fucked up off-the-wall random ass ideas._

I tuned back in as Aethyta finished off her drink, "So, you can take the night to think it over."

I held up a hand, "I'm in."

All three alien women once again turned to stare at me.

"I... well, I'm in." I tried to find something to say, to explain the decision, but I really had nothing. I was too frazzled to say anything that wouldn't sound stupid, and the truth was obviously out. Thinking about it later, I could have said something about how they were going to be after us anyway, and that I wasn't about to let them run me off-world. But really I don't know if it would have fooled anyone. As I've said, I'm not much of an actor.

Thankfully, Trena came to my rescue with a long sigh, "Athame's sacred ass. If the ape is in I can't say no can I?"

Nynsi glanced between the two of us before nodding slightly to her left. "If not here, I'd have to work directly for my uncle, and I'd rather try something... different."

_Oh yeah, definitely a story there. Between her and Trena, what is it with me and having women with mysterious and dark pasts around?_

"Well then, as your new boss... get your asses home and get some sleep. I'll have some special gear mailed to you, mostly communications shit so you can get a hold of me. Your on your own for weapons and armor, but I'll see what I can do about unlocking the accounts. Shaaryak, you let these two get first crack. Xerol spoils you with top end gear as it is." We all nodded as she continued, "And Kean, get that armor working. Just because your spying today doesn't mean someone isn't going to kick you in the quads tomorrow. I want all three of you ready to fight."

We made our way back to the skycar after a few brief goodbyes, and stern instructions that any of us that called her 'ma'am' or 'sir' would get thrown out a window.

Ghai was still waiting in the car, and started up the engine as soon as we approached. Trena took shotgun, leaving Nynsi and I to clamber into the back, but neither of us complained about it.

"Well..." I cleared my throat awkwardly as we lifted off and drifted towards the main traffic lanes. "Thoughts?"

"You invited me to a bar. I left with seven bandages as an employee of the Asari government." Nynsi growled, "I think I should convince my uncle's people to pummel you for a few hours. I'm told humans make excellent punching bags."

"Ha ha ha ha ha... and you invited yourself. Seriously, scales?"

An Asari shrug was my initial answer, her head tilting with a shoulder rising, "I knew Aethyta wasn't exactly just a barkeep, but... goddess, this wasn't what I thought. And we're involved because she had good drinks, how fucked up is that?"

"Pretty fucked up." I shook my head, marveling at the insanity of it. _If we hadn't decided to go out for drinks... no way Tris or those little Maidens would have made it._ "We're going to have to find a new place to drink at."

"No way." A fervent head shake at that, "I don't care if it's stupid, I'm not letting some racist thugs drive me out of my favorite watering hole."

Nynsi snorted, "Stupid... although that wine was very good. I suppose the three of us are going to be stuck together for a while."

"Four." The rather hoarse voice was barely above a whisper.

Trena and I gaped at our driver, but Nynsi just smiled and nodded. "Four of us."

"What a merry little group we are." I closed my eyes and tried to relax into the car's luxury, "An Asari mechanic, a human with mental problems, a security guard who's said one word so far today, and a Batarian aristocrat. All off to save a planet at least two of us hate."

"Three." Nynsi grumbled, "I'd rather be back on the Citadel or the nicer parts of Omega."

"Four." Another gasping, rasp of a whisper from Ghai.

"Well... I always knew Athame had a fucked up sense of humor." Trena groaned as her chair reclined practically into my lap. "Don't say a word ape."

"As you say scales."

Ghai apparently understood that there was a time and a place for accelerating, because we made the trip from Nos Astra to the River District in nearly record time. It was, by and large, another silent ride. Trena and I dozed, Nynsi grumbled to herself as she sent mail to her uncle, and Ghai resumed saying nothing at all. By the time we put down on the roof of Trena and I's building, I was more than ready to just pass out.

 _Heh.. who knew getting shot at wears on your nerves._ I clambered out, shaking my legs to get some feeling back into them. _I don't care what Trena's plans are, I'm sleeping in tomorrow._

Behind me, the car's engine cut out, and I turned around with a frown that morphed into a chuckle. Trena had apparently turned the car off on her own, and was in the process of pulling Ghai out of her seat.

"No way I'm leaving you alone tonight." Nynsi's silent guard looked utterly mortified, if not entirely unwilling. "You can tell your boss I hit you with a stasis or something."

Ghai managed to drag her heels until Nynsi gave an impatient sigh and waved them away, "Go on, I'll tell my uncle."

"See? Permission. Let's go!" Being nearly a full head shorter apparently didn't matter much as she firmly steered the other woman down the nearest staircase.

"Are you planning on staying awake?"

"Hm?" I turned back to Nynsi, "Oh, probably not. I'm exhausted right now, I'm honestly surprised you're not."

"Oh I am, we just tend to hide it better than you humans do." Her lips twitched in amusement.

"Uh huh." I snorted, shaking my head. "You heading back to your uncle's... is it a mansion or a palace?"

"Mansion." One of her hands fell to a hip as she regarded me strangely, "And you look like you're about to fall over."

I shrugged, belatedly noticing that I'd done so in the Asari way on my right side. Thankfully she didn't seem to take any offense. "That is a distinct possibility. I'm ah... still not quite used to this whole.. shooting and killing thing to be honest."

"Why... oh... how many... fights, have you been in since then?"

"This was the second." I admitted, glancing away and staring at the distant skyline. "Second time I've had to kill someone that was trying to kill me. First time was more of those True Sons, they tried to break into Trena's shop not long after I started there." My mouth was apparently running without input from my brain, but it still felt... releasing to say it. "Trena got one of them, a Batarian. Just a teenager really. Kneecapped another. Me.. it was a Salarian. The report after said he was eight... seemed like a damn kid, but apparently that's about their age of majority. He had a gun so I just..."

Two hands rested on my shoulders, fingers digging deeply into the tense muscle. "One burst was all it took, his shields were that bad. I still see his face sometimes."

"You... get used to it." Her voice was pained, but her breath was warm against my ear and neck. "It sounds terrible I know. The third pillar states that we should only kill those who harm others, and that we will be absolved of their deaths when we pass on. But sometimes..." her fingers explored my shoulders, pressing and rubbing, "...the first few times are the worst. I had such nightmares... but after a while you adapt. Those people were trying to kill us Cieran. If you hadn't killed them in return, do you think they'd have allowed any of us present to live?"

"No, I know that. Logically I know there's no reason to feel bad. Those men were... well, pieces of shit by most definitions. Illium is probably better off without them... but I still feel... I don't know. Exhausted. Stained."

"Come on," She wrapped a strong arm around my chest, "I'll make sure you survive getting down to your flat."

"Why does everyone think I'm clumsy?" I shook my head in mock despair as we started down the stairs, "I hardly ever break something."

She chuckled, "I wouldn't know, now would I? We only met last night."

"Fair point."

We did manage to make it down to my floor without my legs giving out and sending us tumbling. Honestly I could have made it on my own, probably, but I was pretty content having her right up next to me like this. Which I'll admit was a bit odd. We both stank of sweat, winced when our various nicks and bruises protested at our movements, and we kept jostling each other every couple of steps. But it was... pleasant to have a girl next to me again, even if she wasn't human and had put me in a pretty bad spot just the night before.

I tapped out my passcode and let it scan my palm when we arrived. When the door open I made to disentangle myself, only to gasp out a breath when she simply tightened her grip and stepped in with me.

"You'll pass out on the floor like you are."

Part of me, the very male and primal part, started to get ideas. My brain told that part of me that it was a horrible idea for a whole host of reasons. I paused her long enough to get the door shut and locked again before she resumed hauling me around.

"Nynsi, um..." I tried to say something, trying to explain that we'd just met, and that I was bloody exhausted, and that it was a bad idea thanks to her uncle, our new situation, and just... Illium. But before I could, which I'm not even sure I'd have been able to coherently say, she gave a long sigh.

"Cieran, honestly, I'm content with falling into your bed and not waking up until at least midday." Apparently yawning was a Batarian thing as well as a human and Asari one, "So down boy."

 _She thought I was about to ask her if she really wanted to, not that I was about to try and shoot her down._ "Oh.. right." As I said, I'm not much of an actor, because she went stiff and we stopped moving just outside of my bedroom.

"You... wouldn't want to?"

"No! I mean, I would, I really would but... I mean..." I was desperately wishing my brain would turn itself back on, ".. bad idea?"

"Why?" Her arm unwrapped itself before she growled at me in the dark, "Because I'm a Batarian? A squint!?"

 _Squint._ The word made my eyes snap open. Before she could react I grabbed her by the shoulders and shoved her back into the wall opposite my door, "Don't _ever_ call yourself that again."

"I.. what?" I could barely make out all of her eyes blinking furiously in confusion. Whatever she'd expected me to do, that wasn't it.

"Never call yourself that again." I spoke slowly, leaning my head forwards, unfocusing my eyes by reflex. "I hate words like that."

"..Why?" Her breath was warm against my face as her breathing sped up.

"Never judge someone until you know them." I paraphrased the man who had raised me quietly, "I don't care that you're a Batarian Nynsi."

"Then.." Her arms slowly reached up to touch my chest, her fingers tracing upwards until they were exploring my neck and shoulders once again. ".. why not?"

 _My turn.. down boy..._ My voice was lower, but I managed not to sound like a drooling idiot."We just met.. you don't really know me. I don't know you."

Her lips twitched, her voice gently teasing, "Nobility? From a human even.. will wonders never cease?"

I snorted gently before stepping back, "I can sleep on the couch, you can have my bed."

There was a low growl before she shoved me, hard, through the doorway. "We're adults Cieran. I trust you not to do anything untowards on threat of my uncle castrating you."

"Your uncle?" I let out a long yawn before helping her move through the dark room. Occasionally we'd step on the clothes I'd left on the floor earlier in the day, and I found the bed by banging my shin into it. "Fuck that hurt... You'd manage just fine I think."

She agreed with that cheerfully as I clambered into bed, not even bothering to take my shoes off. "I would indeed."

I let out a long groan and stretched out on top of my blankets. The bed creaked a moment later as she joined me, her warm body laying aside mine. This time I didn't need any prompting to wrap my arm around her, and she let out a pleased rumbling sound that was the last thing I remember before sleep claimed us both.

* * *

**Next up is Chapter 8: The Trick**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Man.. Seven chapters in less than a week. I forgotten how much I enjoy writing at a breakneck pace like this, watching the story unfold.
> 
> There's a lot going on in this chapter, even with it all being conversation. Cieran has gotten his 'break' to get in with someone related to the main story, but it's hardly in the manner he expected.. or really wanted for that matter. The ball will keep rolling in the next chapter as the new "team" has to come to grips with just what they've signed up for.
> 
> We had a few an almost moment with him and Nynsi in this one, and I'm glad that people are enjoying her character so far. Initially she as actually going to be just a one-off event at the party.. but as I said last chapter, I liked her too much to let it go there. Hopefully things will stay fun for everyone.
> 
> At this point there is quite a bit of adjustment occuring in my outline.. I'll probably talk about that in an author's afterward once the story is completed. Right now I'm definitely breaking from my usual three acts with interludes. I could do that.. but then this story would become a behemoth in terms of length. But hey.. the characters in my head write the story, I'm just the outlet, so we'll see what happens eh?
> 
> And for those people that missed the last few notes, on Batarian Females: As there are no official images of a batarian woman, i'm going with what I can find online, basing them on the Sehnzira series by Yanarada on deviant art. All credit to him for what he did.
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one.
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	8. The Trick

_I don't own Mass Effect, nor will I profit from this story._

* * *

**Act I: Chapter 8: The Trick**

I woke up to pain, which really wasn't surprising, considering I'd slept on top of my damn gun. My companion also awoke when I groaned in mild agony, and let out her own sounds of displeasure, wincing and slowly rising to a seated position.

"I'd forgotten how much sleeping in armor is a bad idea." She admitted sheepishly.

"Could have done with knowing that last night." My face pulled into a wince as the various bits of padding and equipment dug into my bruises, "Ow... first shower is.. yours."

Nynsi chuckled as she almost staggered to her feet, "So noble."

I rolled my eyes even as my cheeks burned a bit. Getting my feet under me and staggering to the kitchen served to inform me of just where I hurt, pretty much everywhere, but by the time she was done I'd served some meat cuts and bread and was feeling slightly more alive. Having no other clothes, she was back into her paramilitary outfit, but she'd removed most of the plates from their sleeves for comfort's sake and tossed them into one of my bags.

I tried not to notice how the shirt and pants tended to cling to her slightly wet body, focusing instead on the morning news.

"What were your plans today?" The question came as she served herself some food.

"Considering it's an hour to noon.. not working. No message from Trena either, so hopefully Ghai didn't kill her." I yawned heavily before taking a greedy pull from my iced tea. It had taken forever to find an Asari blend that I enjoyed, but it got me my caffeine.. or some equivalent, which was all I cared about. "I was probably going to go to the shop and work on my armor. You?"

She let out an almost lustful groan, "There is a massage chamber and tub calling for me. After which... I think a home cooked meal, with at least three courses will do."

"Not asking for much are you?" I chuckled, shaking my head.

"I know, it's rather simple really. I will be here by six." Tea spluttered out of my mouth, fortunately landing mostly back in the cup. "Although if you do something like that during dinner I may have to leave."

"I.. you.. _what!_?"

Her arms crossed her chest. "You told me last night that you didn't know me.. and I don't really know you. So I will be here tonight, and I expect dinner to be a tastefully done mixture of human and Batarian cuisine."

I had no idea what normal Batarian food even was. "Ah, Nynsi... I don't have the fainted idea how to do a three course meal in _my_ culture's food, much less yours _and_ mine."

"It's a good thing you have all afternoon then." She completely ignored my stare of disbelief before practically gliding over to me and cupping one of my cheeks with a hand, her head tilted almost imperceptibly to the right. "I'll see you then, Cieran." Her lips brushed mine for the barest moment before she turned away, hips swaying, and strolled right out my front door.

 _Wow... well... fuck._ _She just walked all over you._ And for some reason... I didn't really mind all that much. "First things first.. I need to shower."

Ignoring the fact that I was talking to myself, I set out to do just that.

About a half hour later I was clean, dressed in casual work clothes, and knocking on Trena's door. "Open up scales! It's afternoon already."

Casual clothes or not, I had a small shield generator running on my belt and one of my hands lingering on my weapon. With both the detective and Aethyta warning us about the True Sons probably knowing we were the ones who'd been at Forever last night, I wasn't going to take chances.

"Wake up dammit!"

" _I am awake you damned ape._ " There was a long groan over her intercom, " _What the hell do you want?"_

"To get to the shop, I've got work to do."

" _So take my skycar._ "

"It's probably still at Forever."

" _Tris brought it back for me."_

"Nice of her. You've got the key."

" _Athame's ass.._ _fine, I'll be there in a minute._ "

Putting my back up against the wall next to her door, I watched the thin crowd of Asari wandering about. Most looked like they were on lunch, hurrying to and from their apartments or the restaurants on the other-side of the sky-lane. Of course, Trena practically staggering out of her door a minute later totally distracted me from anything else.

She had love bites all over her neck and jawline, deep circles beneath her eyes, and I was pretty sure she was only wearing her baggy shirt and pants because she'd couldn't show up to the door naked. A hand shoved the key into my hands without a word.

"Woah. Did you have fun last night?"

Her exhaustion vanished for a moment beneath a pleased little grin, "Try this morning ape.. and for a quiet little thing, she was..." a long pleased sound followed.

"Right, well... enjoying sleeping the day away then."

"Well I'm awake now," She covered her hand and yawned, "Mostly. I suppose I should actually wake her up... somehow."

"Right.. just wash your hands after." I shook my head and ignored her catcalls as I turned away and headed towards the stairs.

Now, flying a skycar isn't much of anything like driving a normal car. Most people just rely on the installed virtual intelligence to drive it for them. You told it where you were going, how many people were in the vehicle, and off it went. Some, like Trena and Nynsi, preferred to drive it manually.. which was quite a bit like a video game really. I knew better than to risk my own skills, considering I'd only ever touched the controls once before when Trena had shown me the basics, so I simply brought up her shop on the shortcut menu and settled back.

After the short, uneventful flight put me into the tiny parking area beside the building, I went ahead and let myself in. Which wasn't as easy at it sounds to be fair. After the break-in, Trena had emptied most of the store's savings to install security doors and windows, complete with kinetic barriers over both, and an extensive camera system. We were still working on a new VI to try and track suspicious behavior, though right now it was stuck on assuming _everyone_ that walked past was a potential suspect. Needless to say, we kept it deactivated while we tried to figure out what the hell had gone wrong.

_All right.. so, I've got about four hours to work before I have to get back to my place to start.. cooking._

I'd spent the car ride looking up various recipes and ideas, which hadn't amounted to all that much really. Proper Batarian meals apparently differed wildly depending on what caste the guests belonged to, whether they were male or female, and a host of other factors I couldn't even start to follow. In the end I'd picked something traditionally meant for the daughter of an upper class merchant caste member, mostly because it seemed simple enough. I'd do my variation on alfredo as the main human course, and find some soups or something for the prior courses.

_And let's hope that none of that is somehow deeply insulting. Or that these sites are lying and I'm making her something meant for slaves._

Trying to shake off _that_ particular worry, I booted up my workstation and started examining the suit. We'd managed to get some armor plating onto the legs and chest, along with extra padding on the interior, which morphed it from looking like a walking pile of scrap to.. looking like an unfinished project.

I blew out a long breath, mentally debating. _Well.. my options are to keep adding more armor plates, work on streamlining the programming, or get in the thing._

"Fuck it."

Firing off a command from my omni-tool, I waited impatiently as several motors quietly whirred, the blocky chest plates extending on their hydraulic mounts to give me the space to wiggle in.

"Record notes... research ingress egress designs, if I ever have to bail in combat I am so dead." It took me well over a minute to slide in, careful to make sure my legs and arms were properly in place before hitting the chin button to close it up. It was another good twenty seconds after that before the few screens we'd hastily welded into place indicated that the suit was unlocked and ready to move with me. "Way too long.. all right, test one, confirming that I can still walk from here to the far side of the shop without major difficulties."

It wasn't much of a test, but that was the most success I'd had throughout the week. I started off at a slow walk, listening with paranoid ears as the engine and a dozen motors rumbled and hissed.

Reaching the wall, I carefully reached up and touched it with two metal hands, biting my lip and waiting for the suit to overbalance. When I remained upright I turned, and set off at a faster clip, fighting back a smile as the gyro and eezo core smoothly adjusted for my increased speed. "Walking tests a success. Increase speed."

Power walking didn't go as well. I could feel the weight starting to shift wildly as my arms swung in time with my long strides. Avoiding falling only by slowing back down, I slowed to a stop before exiting, making some adjustments, then climbing back in.

Two hours later I was sweaty and irritated, but I'd at least managed to get up to something close to a light jog without hurling myself and several hundred pounds of metal to the ground. "Dammit Trena.. this would be easier if you were here."

"Talking to oneself is a bad sign in most cultures." The deep, male voice made me jump in surprise. Of course, the suit could hardly jump, but the startled motion was enough to upset the main eezo core and its attendant gyros, and for a very brief moment all of the mass shifted to the engine mount... with the logical conclusion.

"Athame's fucking ass!" I groaned once my ears were done ringing, "Shaaryak you scared the crap out of me."

"I would hope you are not being literal, such a thing would be unpleasant for us both." Xerol Shaaryak casually strolled over to regard me, his cane resting lightly on the floor. "I find myself glad that Trena allowed me access to drop off work when she was not here. It allowed me to watch your last run across... I must say it is impressive for having only a week to work."

"Yeah, well..." I tilted my head to the left in greeting as I spoke, "You know what happened yesterday. Don't have the luxury of months to get this running as a side project anymore."

"Indeed," He graced me with a barely superior nod before stepping back to give me room to get up. "Although that is not why I am here."

I winced. "Ah."

"Ah." Two gloved hands wrapped around the head of his cane as he leaned his weight slightly upon it. "You have little reason to worry. Nynsi already complimented your... nobility."

"Nobility." My head shook as I started the process of standing, remembering to be careful with my movements to avoid another collapse. _I've already had way too much practice at this._ "What is it with you and her and commenting on that?"

"It is rare for a human to treat one of my people with anything resembling honor." Which was an entirely truthful thing, and he followed it up with more. "Though I might say that few of my own people give them a chance to. I can say that both she and I find you to be a refreshing change."

"Oh... thanks?"

"Unnecessary. Simply continue to be yourself, and there are no problems between you and I."

I was pretty sure there was a threat in there, in his vaguely aristocratic way. My head tilted left more deeply than when I'd greeted him, "Can't promise we won't end up hurting each other, but it won't be over something stupid like her being a Batarian."

"As I said, then we shall have no problems. I have no doubts of my niece's ability to handle herself."

"Yeah. Neither do I." The suit settled around me as I finished returning myself to my feet. "That reminds me, on my terminal over there I've got a... set of recipes I was thinking of making tonight. I don't suppose you could make sure that they're, well, appropriate?"

His lips twitched slightly, "I believe that I will allow you to make your own judgments in that regard."

"Figures." Not helping me then, but not stopping us from trying either. That was something, I supposed. "What were you dropping off?"

The cane waved towards Trena's table, where several armored boxes rested. "The latest Lancer model. Somehow they found their way to this world.. I thought it better that I put them to good use rather than allow more, shall we say, disreputable, elements gain possession of them."

I couldn't help but laugh. _Damn if I don't like his style.._ "We'll get them checked out once Trena's done with her hangover, and her newest girl-toy."

"Yes../ my Harath'krem." There was the same seething sigh that Nynsi had made, "Still, their personal lives are their own affairs."

My shrug was entirely hidden by the wiring and plates around my shoulders, but he seemed to get the gist of it.

I'd expected him to leave at this point, but instead he simply remained, watching as I started to go through arm motions, testing each of the joints in turn. Most responded well enough, but I had to wince a bit when a few of the ones on my left had didn't quite respond at the right speed. "Memo, left hand joints.. adjust waldo units on fingers three through five."

"Mr. Kean, you are aware that I trust Ms. T'laria, are you not?"

"Yes..." I narrowed my eyes at my left had as I went through the motions again. _Damn... not just a temporary thing, "_ Why?"

"You truly are unaware of how you seem, perhaps that is a point in your favor." he mused quietly, two of his eyes narrowed thoughtfully while the others were open and frank. "Tell me, if a man arrived in your building, or rather, a being of any kind did so. They claimed to remember nothing from their past, and further suffered from a rare condition that prevented any Asari from simply melding with them to aid in the recovery of those memories.. what would you think of them?"

I opened my mouth, closed it, then felt my heart drop a bit as I actually took the time to think about it. "I'd think... someone on the run from something bad as the best case, an assassin with a penchant for unusual covers at worst."

"And if it were true?"

 _If I really had just shown up here with no past.. no memories.._ "I'd be... concerned. Why was he attacked? What made him special enough to target?"

"So, you are not unintelligent." His head dipped, barely. "I received the message from Matriarch Aethyta this morning, indicating that she was hiring you."

That mulled around in my brain for a moment. "You're keyed into the security system here.. are those really Lancers in those boxes?"

"For the most part." he shrugged slightly, "I will take those that are more... incendiary with me when I leave, if you continue to answer my questions openly and honestly."

 _Huzzah for near-certain death yet again.._ I swallowed any quips before they could come out, "You won't have any problems there."

"Excellent. Now, my dear Trena believes your story, which is a point in your favor. However, I believe it to be clear that Matriarch Aethyta does not, which is several points against." I winced. "She assures me that you would be brain dead in the best case scenario, and that only those unfamiliar with Ardat-Yakshi would believe such a tale. As that is the majority of the population, it is a near perfect cover story in that few would have the honest credibility needed to question such a fantastic tale. A refuge in audacity, as it were."

I spread my extended arms apart slowly, "All right, total honesty."

 _Sorta._ It wasn't like I had much choice. Telling him about the Matriarch was the only thing that might help me here, and I'd just have to hope that it wouldn't get back to her somehow.

"I woke up in my apartment with a splitting migraine and missing memories. There was a Matriarch there who refused to tell me her name, along with the body of another Asari. She told me that she was sorry for what had happened, and gave me that cover story. She introduced me to Trena that same day, and brought me to a hospital a few days later. They diagnosed me with Floating Mind."

All four of his eyes narrowed slightly, "This is not the first I have heard of a Matriarch who refused to be named. My grandfather met such a being when he and Trena were young. Perhaps.. yes, that is in your favor. Would Trena confirm such a story?"

"I was under the impression she didn't like to talk about that... woman. Truthfully I don't either." I didn't have to fake a wince, "She was... rather intense."

"Please, I would not divulge any information you share with me. I have a reputation to maintain." He shifted his balance slightly, leaning more heavily on his cane as he regarded me. "And your lack of prejudice is another point in your favor. Even the most skilled of human agents would have hesitated to dance with a Batarian woman, or reacted to her kiss in a more... negative manner. It was for that reason that I did not stop her from what she was doing."

My cheeks flushed slightly, which covered up the wince. _So.. you didn't mind that she was setting me up at all... because you were trying to expose me. So what the hell was the whole forced apology thing about?_ "Well... I mean... it was a good kiss."

That earned me a genuine chuckle, "I shall tell her you said so. Very well Mr Kean. I suppose she gave you that name as well?"

I nodded slowly.

"Perhaps... no, it would be better to avoid the attention of that one. I trust that you will show my niece your best behavior tonight?"

 _Man... this guy can politely threaten like nobody's business._ "Of course."

"Excellent. Let us not say that I trust you, but that I no longer _dis_ trust you. A step in the right direction, as it were." He tipped his head forwards, not a hair to the left or right. "A good day to you, Mr. Kean."

I carefully mimicked his gesture, "And profitable one to you, Mr. Shaaryak."

He strolled casually out, pausing only to collect one of the cases from the desk. I hardly dared to breath until he left, blowing out a massive breath before gasping for air the moment I saw him enter his car on the cameras.

 _Holy fuck.._ I tried to cope with what had just happened, and what I thought it could mean. _Way too much shit going down right now._

Getting the suit back to its docking station, clambering out of it, and then shutting everything down kept me occupied physically, but my mind was still distracted by other topics.

 _How the hell did I not think about this before? I mean, a guy shows up with no past and a ghost story to explain his missing memories.. of course I'm going to be distrusted._ Planting my hands on my desk, I stared vaguely at my reflection on the screen, pale green eyes staring back at me. _Now... fuck fuck FUCK. What the hell do I think now!? No, calm down. Think logically. There is always safety in knowledge and logic._

I blew out a long breath.

First, I should have thought of this before, but there wasn't much I could do about it. The story was set in place, established, and all I could do was run with it. I hadn't had a choice but to tell Xerol, and he'd probably tell Aethyta and maybe Nynsi. In either case, I wouldn't volunteer the information. _No need for anything to get back to that old hag._

Second, considering the first put a whole new spin on most of my relationships. Trena trusted me, mostly, because the Matriarch had had a hold on her as well. I'd already confronted her, and I still trusted her. How smart of me that was I didn't know, but I needed to have someone I could at least believe was fully on my side.

Nynsi... the conflicted feelings returned. _Xerol is obviously protective of her.. but how much of her wanting to be, well, with me, is actual interest on how much of it is him or Aethyta wanting someone to watch me?_

The thought was enough to make me nauseous. _It was bad enough worrying that Trena was an agent for the Matriarch... that Nynsi is a... could be a handler I suppose..._ I ruthlessly shoved that aside and continued.

Third, Aehtyta bringing me in... had to have been some kind of test. She could have recruited Nynsi though Xerol, and Trena on her own time. They obviously knew each other from somewhere in Trena's mysterious past. _Although that doesn't explain exactly why she was so furious that we all showed up at Eternity... maybe because she thought they gave away the place to me?_

It would led some context to her anger, and to Trena's actions during that meeting. If Trena had vouched for me before hand, it would have given some explanation to how she'd acted with Aethyta had blown up. _But really that's just a theory. You've really got no proof, and trying to gather any could just reinforce what they already think.. whatever it is that they think._

"Face it _Cieran_. You're in deep shit right now." I whispered to myself. "You had no choice about coming here. No choice about where you worked. Who you met. What other people think about you. So what can you choose?"

 _I can choose..._ A long breath, _I can choose to help, even if Aethyta doesn't trust me. I can choose to remember my father's lessons and show a lady a good evening, even if she.. might be more than she appears._

I nodded once at my own reflection, blew out one more long breath, and hit the lights on my way out.

I composed a quick message before I started cooking, cordially inviting one Nynsi Shaaryak to a casual dinner at my apartment, if she would allow me to host her.

Her return message indicated disappointment in the word casual, but that she would lower herself to attend regardless. The dark thoughts still plaguing the edges of my brain killed the small smile it provided, and I quickly threw myself back into the preparations.

I'd made a quick stop at a few shops on my way back, picking up some of the rarer ingredients that I needed. Fortunately none proved to be that expensive, though it did reveal that I was still waiting on Aethyta to provide.. whatever it was she said she would. _Assuming she actually will.._

Throttling the paranoia along with everything else, I focused on the first course. It was simple enough, just finger food really. Slices of salami that I'd double checked the authenticity of, along with a fresh backed loaf of Yllian bread, apparently a Batarian staple. After that it would be small bowls of Miso soup, minus the onions that would have sent her into allergic fits, and fruit slices sold from the workers at Xerol's mansion. The main course was seafood alfredo, my concession to us being on Illium in the choice of a local fish rather than the Earth choices of chicken or shrimp, but I'd spiced it in the Batarian style: mildly hot with a few herbs to tone it back down and add a bitter aftertaste.

The entire process gave me a massive appreciation for professional chefs. Not only did I have to figure out how to simply cook everything at about the same time, I had to keep it all warm and fresh until she arrived. After all, I doubted she wanted me to spend most of the dinner in the kitchen preparing the food then.

I'd just managed to finish getting the bread and cuts onto the table, along with a bottle of wine, when my door bell rang.

_Well.. here we go._

A quick double check had confirmed that it was Nynsi, thankfully with no one else visible. She was dressed in a plain gray dress that hugged her figure without being revealing, though a closer look on the screen as I headed to the door revealed a shimmering pattern along the sides that drew attention to her shoulders, waist, and hips. Earrings and bracelets woven with some kind of gemstone shimmered in the lower light, and I felt my lips twitch slightly.

"Good evening Miss Shaaryak," I was already speaking as I opened the door, politely inclining my head to the left.

She remained there for a moment, her lower eyes visibly taking in my own appearance. I'd gone with a dark green shirt without any logos or symbols, and the same black pants I'd worn to Xerol's party. "Good evening, Mister Kean." She tilted her own head to the right, but stopped it short of being condescending. "May I enter?"

"You may," I stepped back, making sure to shut and lock it behind her. "May I offer to take you to the dining area?"

Her lips twitched at my overt formality, but she nodded politely all the same, sliding her hand onto my arm when I offered it.

I relaxed as we headed towards my small dining room, letting the comfort of having her there drive away my worries and paranoia.

I did have to move to stop her from drawing her own chair though, which made her lower eyes blink quickly in confusion as I brought it out and held it for her.

"Please sit, dear lady."

She did, slowly, still regarding me in confusion as I gently pushed it in so that she was seated appropriately.

"I believe this was the vintage of wine you were having at Forever before the unpleasantness," Understatement of the year, "occurred. Would you care for some?"

"I... yes, please." She was obviously off balance, and I spent the rest of the first course positively waiting on her. I ate my own food only when she needed nothing, and practically sprang to my feet whenever she needed to get something that was out of reach. Of course, I made sure that everything beyond her plate and glass was just far enough away that she'd have to get up at least a bit... and each time I leaped up to politely fill her plate she became more flustered.

She lasted until I brought out the soup and salad bowls before she broke. "Cieran, what are you _doing_?"

I blinked, as if I were honestly confused. "Me? I am treating you as a lady of your station deserves. Am I doing something wrong?"

"I... no, but-"

"Ah you must try the soup. I'm told it's quite good." I knew it was delicious, I practically drank the stuff in my past life.

She took a few polite sips, nodding slowly. "It is good."

"Excellent." I beamed happily at her.

All four of her eyes narrowed as I took a long sip of my own. "You are up to something."

"I'm afraid my only plan for the night is to treat you as a host should treat a proper lady."

"You..." I could practically see the gears spinning in her mind, "You listened to etiquette courses while you cooked, didn't you?"

 _Only so that anyone who could trace my extranet searches could confirm that.. man I'm paranoid today. Can't be healthy, even if it might be a bit justified._ "Perhaps."

Her lips twitched slightly, and she honestly looked... touched. She recomposed herself after another sip of soup, and we fell into our roles. I was the gracious host, and she was.. well, herself. Polite, charming, yet very aloof. I didn't doubt for a moment that it was how she acted at more formal events that Xerol likely threw. She complimented the pasta efficaciously, in particular noting how I'd managed to get the spicing _almost_ perfect before explaining on the proper manner of doing such. Or how the salad had been arranged _nearly_ as her uncle's chef would have. I accepted the barbs as the polite victories given to an honored guest

Once we finished our meals, I pulled out her chair and guided her to the living room before returning to clean everything up. I wanted to feel relief at how well everything has gone, but I really didn't want to jinx it.

I joined her after I had put all of the dishes into the washer, utterly unsurprised when she casually slid herself along the couch until we were seated much as we had been the last time we'd been there. There was some movie on the screen, one I'd already seen about the first Spectre and his rather... interesting view of the galaxy.

"My uncle said that he spoke with you today." Her tone was deceptively casual, "That he.. confronted you."

"Yeah..."I exhaled heavily, "He did."

"You're worried now, aren't you." She gave me a sidelong glance, "You're trying to hide it, but you're worried."

My lips twisted into rueful smile, "Nynsi... I woke up on a world I don't remember traveling to, no friends, no name, no past. I guess... I just got too wrapped up in trying to have a life that..."

"You forgot that the rest of us had lives before you showed up." Her lips quivered, "How very human of you."

"Thanks... now I feel like an untrusted asshole, instead of just untrusted." I gently held up a hand, "And please don't tell me that you trust me, because you don't."

"No..." At least she admitted it, "...but I would like to, someday."

"Why?"

"When I lured you to the dance floor... you know I expected you to do something.. untoward. But you didn't, even when I started to get desperate, you just... danced with me. Me, a highborn Batarian, and you, a human... and you danced with me. You did not seem to judge me for the fact that I have two more eyes or because our species have a history. And then..." Her skin flushed from teal to maroon, "And then I forced myself on you, and I could... well I could tell you enjoyed that as well."

It was my turn to flush slightly, and she pressed on, "And then last night. Most Batarian men wouldn't have even thought twice about dragging me to bed. But you were... _noble_. I'd... well I'd forgotten what it was like to be treated that way, instead of just as a Batarian or as my uncle's little niece who should run along and leave the real work to the males."

I tried to work that out in my head. "So... because I treated you... well, like I'd have treated any other woman... that's enough for you?"

She turned and gave me a slow grin, "You also said you enjoyed kissing me."

"Ah.. yeah, that's tr-" Her lunge caught me totally off guard, her warm lips pressing gently against mine as her mouth moved. The part of me that had thought it was a bad idea before thought it was an even _worse_ idea now.. but that part of me didn't get a say just then. Her tongue lightly slid across my lips, and I opened them in permission. That same exotic taste reached me again as we explored each other, my arms wrapping around her as hers came to rest on my chest.

We broke apart a few minutes later, breathing heavily. She carefully rested her broad forehead against mine, a hand reaching up to idly run through my hair.

"You know..." I swallowed, throttling the rush of lust that the kiss had created, "Nothing more is happening tonight, right?"

I could feel her chuckle reverberating through her, "Tonight, my noble human, this is quite enough."

My lips tugged into a smile before I reached up to cup her chin, and guided her into another kiss.

And for a while I managed to forget about the problems that would be awaiting me the next morning, when we received the message from Aethyta about our first task.

* * *

**Next up is Chapter 9: The Repetition**

* * *

**Random Fact:**

_The title was inspired by a line from Merrill, one of my all time favorite characters, in Dragon Age 2, referencing the Fade and the spirits that dwell there._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So.. yeah. Here's another chapter, which makes eight in six days. I may or may not have a problem. I had intended this chapter to contain the first mission brief.. but it worked without it and was long enough as it is.
> 
> Here we start to see a bit that everything isn't exactly going well beneath the surface, and that the back story the matriarch cooked up may be causing more harm than good. Still, some things still are bright, and it's at least forced him to acknowledge that there hasn't been much about his life since he arrived that he really controlled.
> 
> Because I'm in the mood to share, I'm going to add a random fact for the chapter section, where I reveal something mostly irrelevant about the story.


	9. The Repetition

_I don't own Mass Effect, nor will I profit from this story._

* * *

**Act I: Chapter 9: The Repetition**

I sat in a chair and contemplated the strangeness of life, specifically the dichotomy of the rich and the poor. It's a strange thing to be thinking about when you're eating lunch, I know, but the damn chair had started it.

Put simply, it was the most _uncomfortable_ chair I had ever had the displeasure to sit in.

And when you've sat on freezing, warped, and splintered bleachers at a football game in the middle of a midwestern blizzard, you know you've got some pretty good competition in that category. There was just enough padding to tease you without actually providing any softness, the seating part of it was.. rippled I suppose, in such a way that you had to adjust yourself every few moments. The armrests were too far apart for anyone but a Krogan to really use, and the back jutted forwards in such a way that you couldn't lean back unless you felt like suffering.

"You know.." I whispered quietly so that only Trena and Nynsi could hear me, not that there was anyone else there in either case."My couch cost me two hundred credits."

Trena made a strangled sound while Nynsi scowled, her voice prim. "That is not the point, Cieran."

"Uh huh. Would you rather be sitting on that chair, or on my couch?" I smirked in satisfaction when she didn't answer immediately, "That's what I thought."

We'd all arrived at Xerol's mansion-slash-palace-slash-fortress about an hour before noon after receiving messages to be there promptly for a lunch-time briefing of our first assignment. Xerol had politely welcomed us into his home, and then left us in a dining room the size of my entire apartment... where Trena and I had discovered the chairs.

"He has to be punishing us for something," Trena groused as her fingers tore apart a loaf of bread, sending crumbs flying over her, me, and everything in general. "What did you do ape?"

"Can't think of anything." I didn't think he'd be this petty really, after our talk at the shop. Of course, it was entirely possible that hey were simple fashionable, or that he somehow thought they were comfortable."I was sure you'd said something stupid. Again."

She rolled her eyes but focused on getting through her food before she spoke, "You're the one sleeping with his niece, ape."

"We have not been." Nynsi carefully cut open a fruit, every movement exact to rub in her superior manners. "He has insisted on sleeping on the couch."

I had to slap my boss, well, one of my bosses now, hard on the back to dislodge the bit of bread that she'd just inhaled.

"You.. _what!?_ " She chocked out the moment she could.

"You know, you really look like a fish right now scales. With your mouth gaping like that. Maybe you shou- _dammit!_ " I was cut off by a brief flash of blue light and the scent ozone as my chair rocketed out from under me. I managed to avoid banging anything onto the table by luck more than skill, but still managed to land right on my damn gun.

"Mother fucking..." I groaned from my new place on the floor, grabbing at the new knot of pain on my lower back. "Athame's ass, that fucking hurt you tit!"

Nynsi sighed heavily at the pair of us, calmly continuing to peel her fruit. "Must you both be so uncouth? I swear."

"Sorry we're not perfect like you princess." Trena diverted her attention for only a second before rounding back on me, "You've been sleeping on the _couch_? Here I was finally starting to respect you!"

My Batarian... I don't know what we really were to each other at this point, friends at least, probably more but I was still hesitant to go there in my head, came to my rescue. "He has also made me breakfast while I showered, though I am less sure of his fascination with opening doors for me."

Trena rolled her eyes, "It's a human thing, apparently pretty old fashioned. I knew a guy on the Citadel that was like that. He was ancient, by human standards at least, but was the most polite little thing. Kind of creeped me out to be honest."

"A human thing." Nynsi murmured. "Do you know what it means?"

I slowly got to my feet, eying the loathsome chair. "You know I'm still here right?"

Typically, they both ignored me. Which was probably better than refereeing to be fair. "That you're a lady or some shit. You'd have to look it up." More crumbs started flying, as she apparently got over her choking experience.

"A lady.." Her full lips pursed as I again tried to find a way to sit in the torture device disguised as a chair without hurting myself, "..how interesting."

Trena grunted around another mouthful of food, "Seriously though, he's not bad for a human. Why haven't you just jumped him yet?"

"That is not something I am willing to discuss with you."

The Asari's expressive eyes rolled backwards, "Oh please. You've been all over the ape since he didn't fall for your attempt at murder. Just rip your clothes off in front of him and say you're making up for the trouble."

My cheeks started to heat up at that, and I very pointedly kept my gaze on my own fruit slices.

"It is not about that." Nynsi practically spat back, "He has already forgiven me for my.. lapse in judgment."

"He's an idiot sometimes." Her head tilted with a shoulder rising, "Case in point, he hasn't ravished you yet. I'm not hearing you deny that you'd be willing."

"As I said, I will not talk about my _sex life_ with you!"

"Athame's ass you're uptight!" A half eaten bit of bread bounced off her plate, "Fine, I'll drop it, whatever. There are days when I just don't get you ape."

The rest of our light snacking passed quietly. Or at least, what passed for quietly with both women sniping at each other every couple of minutes, mostly thanks to Trena's eating habits.

Thankfully Xerol returned before either of them felt like drawing a weapon. To Nynsi's hastily suppressed annoyance he didn't comment, or even glance at, the mess we left behind, instead leading us out into the hall. After guiding us past several pieces of hideous art that probably cost more each than most skycars, we were led into a small conference room.

Aethyta and Ghai were already there, the former pacing while the later sat as quietly as ever.

"Sit your asses down." the Matriarch jerked her chin at the strangely simple table. Though the chairs proved to be generic and mass manufactured, I couldn't help but sigh almost in contentment as I sat. "We don't have much of a window here, so I'm not going to bother with the flowery shit. You're hitting a True Sons warehouse in two days, along with whatever else Xerol can spare. I've got word that they're moving illegal goods through there, and that the buyer will be on sight."'

I frowned, puzzling over that. _Illegal goods? What the hell is_ illegal _on Illium? Drugs are legal with the right permit, same for guns smaller than cruise missiles, they've got their own slaves in their indentured servitude system... wait.._

"Kean, you figured out what we're hitting?" Aethyta fixed me with a hard look.

My tongue ran over my dry lips before I spoke, "This is Illium. Almost everything is legal for a price... but not open slavery. Indentured Servitude is bullshit, but you have to willingly sign a contract to be stuck in it. They're bringing in slaves from somewhere else on the cheap and selling them as indentured persons for a profit, aren't they?"

Trena sucked in a long breath, her eyes going hard. Nynsi and Xerol seemed far less affected, though how much of that was because of their culture, or them just being more jaded about this kind of thing, I wasn't sure.

"Not bad kid. They're bringing them in from the Terminus somewhere. While you lot are dealing with them here, I'll be following up on that."

"Alone?" Nynsi's upper eyes blinked furiously.

Aethyta's muscled arms flexed slightly as her mouth twitched, "I'll have armor, credits, and food. Athame's ass this won't even compare to tracking down a warlord on Tuchanka with nothing but an overheated pistol... bah, those were the days."

There was a deep chuckle before Xerol spoke, "Don't worry Nynsi, that old hag won't die on you right when you've managed to get away from me." Her teal skin flushed to a deep maroon, but she kept her mouth firmly closed as her uncle continued on. "The setup for this is simple. Thanks to a few well placed sources, the warehouse in question will be transferred to my name a few minutes before we move in."

_Which means we suddenly have legal rights to kill everyone inside for using his property for... nefarious purposes. Still though..._

"Won't that tip them off about... well, us being against them?" I frowned. "Or you at least?"

"I'm sure they're already aware of your actions at Forever by now. If not, they're more incompetent than even I gave them credit for." His expensive suit's shoulders rose and fell, "And where my niece is involved, I am."

Nynsi grumbled something too quiet for me to hear.

"And there is a level of protection. The building itself is owned by the Asari government, I am merely going to be leasing it to store my products. Your arrival will be a fortuitous event." He gave another shrug as the rest of us stared disbelievingly at him. "Flimsy, I know. But it may be enough for them to elect to simply make a punitive move, rather than attempt open fighting."

"Here's to hoping." I muttered, shaking my head as the magnitude of what we were walking into hit me.

"You'll be going in with three of my teams, it should give us more than enough personnel to deal with them."

"If the pyjaks there are as poorly equipped as the rest of the idiots were, it'll be overkill." Aethyta sort of shrugged in her people's way, hardly seeming to be concerned. "Reminds me, those old bitches on Thessia came through, finally. I want you all to get some armor and upgrades. Xero'll get you the preliminaries, be back here by this time day of."

Trena grunted, already opening up her omni-tool. "Deal's at night then?"

"Around eight. Figure two hour transit."

"Figure an hour to get everyone loaded up, another one to go over the plan, two hours to get us there," My boss nodded slowly, "We know who the buyers are?"

"If I did I'd have Illium Security doing this." Aethyta didn't have to work hard to sound disgusted, "But I can't risk sending them in to have someone there who can order them to turn their blue asses back around."

"Fucking Illium." The mutter was practically reflex. _Three months here.. ugh.. all it takes apparently._ "Who's in command?" I tried to make it clear that I didn't want it to be me. If Aethyta was suspicious of me, and I didn't doubt for a moment that she was, the worst thing I could do was try to angle to be put in any sort of leadership role.

"Trena's leading this." My friend blinked rapidly as her mouth twitched open before shutting with an audible _click_. "Little Shaaryak, you're running the three of you if she has to divert."

Nynsi's black eyes flickered slightly at the nickname, but inclined her head respectfully all the same. "Uncle, who are you sending with us?"

"Marn and Re'hat. You'll have a dozen guns between their teams." His cane thumped once onto the floor, "Trena, I'll get you the particulars in a few hours."

"Thanks." There was a long sigh as she frowned at what was already scrolling on her wrist, "You just had to put me in charge, didn't you?"

"It was you or Ghai." Xerol's voice turned dry as he gave his guard a slight nod, "And as much as I adore you my dear, you've made your feelings on leading others abundantly clear."

Ghai gave him a little smile, apparently quite satisfied with herself.

"Right." Trena chuckled, "Ape, you and your girl can go ahead and get out of here. You need some actual armor, and find a tech mine launcher for your omni-tool while you're at it."

"Already on my list." I reminded her patiently, rising up and tucking my chair in. "I'd rather not have to use both of my hands to throw the damn things."

Nynsi patted my arm, "You did quite well, but I would rather you be able to shoot at the same time as well."

We both nodded respectfully to Aethyta and Xerol before leaving. I took half a step after the door closed, stopped, backed up, and offered her my arm. She gave me a long look before almost casually accepting it, guiding me through the place until we reached the reinforced patio where her car was resting.

"So, where are we going?" I asked after we'd gotten in, and I'd gotten another look for opening and closing her door for her.

"Nos Astra." We both settled back after she finished programming in our destination, "Did you check how much we received?"

"Nope. Think I should? ...You have very pretty eyes." Her glare, if anything, intensified until I threw up my hands in defeat and brought up my omni-tool. "Let's see, recent payment of ten... ten..."

"Say it with me, ten.. thousand." Nynsi's voice was teasing, "Though I would recommend we try and save most of that for work on your actual armor."

"I... ah... yeah, right." _Ten thousand freaking credits.. Athame's sacred ass.._ "Didn't... she say this was a stipend?"

"I highly doubt that we will receive additional payments of ten thousand."

I gave her a slight glare, "Yes, I've never had this much money to my name before. Rub it in."

Her right hand reached across to pat me gently on the leg, which was probably the closest I'd get to an apology. "I know a few places where we can get a slight discount. And you already have a weapon, so that will save you a few credits. Have you thought about upgrades?"

We spent the remainder of the trip debating about the best way to modify my gun. Much like the Tempest, the little Watcher Twenty-Four was full auto only, and we both agreed that a recoil dampener was a must. After that though, we couldn't really agree. She thought I should look into a high performance barrel, I was leaning more towards putting in an upgraded heat sink.

I didn't end up deciding until we were at the kiosk, the poor Salarian teller monstrously confused at the notion of a human and a Batarian shopping together.

"Are you sure?" She asked for what seemed like the tenth time.

Long fingered hands quickly pushed my purchases across the counter. A Thessian made dampener and a pair of extended heat sinks from Elanus Risk Control didn't even come out to five hundred, so I'd topped it off with a few ammo blocks of inferno rounds.

"Yup." I thanked him politely, trying not to smile as he tried to subtly shoo us out. "I don't want to go all out. Like you said, I've got to save up for my actual project. It's not like I can even hold the Watcher with it on."

She chuckled, wrapping one arm around my waist as I did the same for her, though I was careful not to touch her spine. She'd quietly admonished me for doing so when we'd gotten out of the car, her slight flush making it clear that that part of her back was... sensitive.

In less embarrassing news, I'd picked up on the fact that she found the crowd's reaction to us highly amusing, though she of course affected to not notice. For the most part, the Asari dominated crowd was content to chuckle in bemusement, maybe stare a bit, and then move on. The few Batarians we encountered typically looked as though they were about to charge over and murder me for my presumptuousness, only to draw up short on seeing Nynsi giving them a death glare. Even out here in Nos Astra, it seemed, the face of Xerol's niece was known.

_That or Batarians just have some way of telling who is from what caste at a glance.. they probably do, come to think of it._

It wasn't all amusing though, and it was my own species that was to blame for that. And unlike Nyn I couldn't just stare them down to make them back off.

The first had been funny enough. The overweight businessman had had to be frantically grabbed my an Asari matron before he'd walked right into the thin rail at the end of a platform. She'd saved him from very long fall, but he'd barely even stammered out an apology to the annoyed woman before resuming gaping at us as we passed. After that, we'd hit the first few shops, mostly picking up a few little things that seemed to amuse her (She, after all, was hardly on a budget, though she avoided touching the money Aethyta had sent).

On the way to the stall where I'd bought my equipment had been where I'd gotten my first taste of outright bigotry.

A young Caucasian man, a Maiden hanging off his side, had sneered at us, very loudly praising how beautiful his date's eyes were. The vapid little thing had giggled her head off, though her smile faded a bit after Nynsi openly regarded her dress, what little of it she was wearing, before pointedly turning away. It had to have been a female thing, because they pair quickly departed.

Unfortunately, not everyone was so easily dissuaded. Most of them just paused and stared, a few muttered things I was happier not to hear. In that the Asari dominated crowd was likely working in my favor, the few humans that might have said something far more loudly if we'd been on Earth or even the Citadel were far more nervous about trying to start anything when surrounded by aliens.

Not all of the taunting was verbal though. While we were eating at a cafe, one particularly annoying woman had kept trying to get my attention. Continuously tossing her long hair and leaning heavily forwards whenever I so much as turned in that direction.

"Seriously... two other human men here, both with Asari." I muttered, my fork and knife viciously slicing into my cut of fish, "And she picks me to irritate."

Nynsi casually swirled her drink in its glass, "Are you regretting being here with me?"

I gave her a long look before standing up, letting my chair skid back loudly, before pointedly walking around the table to stand next to her. She regarded me levelly, but there was a hint of a grin on her mouth when I took her chin firmly in between my thumb and forefinger before bending down to press my lips to hers. It wasn't a long one, but it made my point while my other hand rose up to flip off the cat-callers. There as a very satisfied smirk on my face as I headed back to my own chair, which only grew wider at the green tinge on the human woman's face.

Of course, after we'd had to deal with giggling and whispering Asari shooting us continuous looks, but that was a lot easier to ignore.

After lunch we'd stopped by another kiosk to pick up a tech mine launcher for my omni-tool, which had turned out to be a simple box of a device that hooked onto my belt. It would hold several dozen of the little mines and was already loaded with the software to link to the smaller device on my wrist. Not that I wasn't about to start messing with it the moment I got to the shop tomorrow morning, but it was at least a place to start.

"Now, all that is left is your armor." Her hand squeezed my arm gently by way of reproof, and I sheepishly stopped flicking through the manual of my newest purchase. "Have you put any thought into it?"

"It's going to have be fairly light." I winced slightly at the idea. I'd rather have the heaviest armor I could carry, but unfortunately... well, for one I still wasn't really built enough to manage that. And for another, "I'm going to have to be able to wear it while I'm in the exoskeleton."

"That will rather limit your options." She guided me into a small mall that reminded me of Zakera ward, even some of the shops looked to be the same. Her head inclined towards two of them in particular,"Hahne-Kador or Elanus?"

"Hahne-Kador's not supposed to be half bad when it comes to armor."

Less than an hour later I was awkwardly carrying out a case containing a full Mantis pattern set of armor, along with a pair of shielding upgrades. It had cost me more than I'd hoped, but less than I'd feared. Overall though, it still left me hoping that real life wasn't like the first game when it came to having to constantly upgrade.

"What about you?"

My companion shrugged as we slowly started heading back towards the parking zone where we'd left her skycar. "Did you really think that I did not already have suitable equipment?"

"Well I figured you'd have armor, and your tooled up guns, but didn't know if you needed anything else."

"I could do with a home cooked meal... possibly served to me by a handsome and noble human."

I let my lips twitch into a smile while my cheeks burned a bit at the compliment. "Well, I don't know about the handsome and noble part, but I can handle the home cooked meal."

She chuckled, "Well then, let us be on our way."

A day and a half later found me getting suited up with everyone else, trying not to show how nervous I was. Nobody else seemed all that bothered by what was coming later in the day, which only painfully reinforced just how new I was at this whole fighting thing.

We were setup in one of the garage's at Xerol's mansion, a small flotilla of skycars being inspected by his own mechanics while the rest of us ran our last minute checks.

Trena was standing next to Xerol, Aethyta had apparently already headed off world, going over the building's plans for the hundredth time. A good dozen plus Batarians, men and women, were all present. Their medium and heavy armor did make me a bit jealous, especially given that pretty much all of it looked far sturdier than my own slim plating. Only Ghai and Trena were also in light armor, but theirs was obviously higher end gear, and I idly wondered where they'd gotten it. Nynsi had proven true to her statements, wearing what she said was the Batarian knock-off of the Alliance's Titan pattern.

Thankfully I'd been able to handle the modifications on my own, which did a little bit to alleviate my worries about being useless. Trena had even trusted me enough, and I'm sure it was over Xerol's objections, to go over most of the team's weapons to make sure there weren't any problems.

 _Of course, it would have helped if someone hadn't told a few of them to obviously make some mistakes._ I let out a long sigh as I triple checked that my omni-tool had a firm connection to both my armor and the tech launcher. _Wonder how many tests like that I'm going to have to go through... let's just hope there wasn't something that I missed. I'm sure someone in this crowd has orders to keep an eye on me..._

"All right you lot," Trena's strong voice cut through the quiet chatter, and did wonders to distract me from the paranoid thoughts that had begun to snowball. "Get your asses over here."

I managed to get close enough to lean on the holographic table, Ghai and Nynsi moving to flank me while everyone else crowded in.

"True Sons warehouse is the usual Illium pattern. Big, but not many ways in an out." her eyes hit Nynsi and the other two squad leaders, "Now, we don't want these fuckers getting away, or even getting a transmission out. The jammers are in the cars, so we're going to have to land like so."

Xerol, as impressive a figure as ever in his immaculately white suit, carefully manipulated the holographic emitters. A wire-frame of the warehouse and surrounding area popped into place above the table, six red boxes glowing dimly where we'd apparently be putting down.

"Once we set down we're going to have to haul our asses, they'd have to be total morons not to have somebody on lookout. Re'hat, I want your sharpshooters split up and put here, and here." She gestured at a pair of taller buildings that probably had good line of sight. "Anyone not us trying to get in or out, take them down." Said sharpshooters both revealed their sharpened teeth, one of them practically caressing his weapon. "Since you'll be down two men, you're on door duty once we get inside. The main gate is yours, keep it shut."

"Just don't hog them all to yourself." Re'hat Shaaryak, apparently one of Xerol's much younger cousins, spoke up. His voice was gravelly even by Batarian standards, and when he tilted his head to the left slightly I could see a few thin scars on his throat. "Herd a few our way would you?"

"No promises. Marn," An unlovely Batarian woman with thick scars crisscrossing her face glanced up, "You're on search and destroy. The True Sons inside are yours. Sweep right from the main entrance and make sure that these doors are shut and sealed," said doors highlighted themselves at Xerol's command, "After that, stick together."

Marn nodded with a soft grunt. "Prisoners?"

"Not interested." I bit my tongue slightly to avoid twitching. I was all for taking these guys down, but that didn't mean I thought I was ready to execute anyone we didn't kill in combat. "Shaaryak, our team is going after the buyer. If we take them alive, great, we can interrogate them later. If not, I'm not going to be broken up about it. Once we've dropped everyone, we'll detail a few guys to get the... captives back here. Aethyta's already has transports ready to get them off world."

I felt my shoulders relax slightly. _Well.. at least we're doing something good today._

The Batarians, naturally, hardly seemed concerned, though Ghai's lips did curve into a small smile.

"We still have no word on the buyer?" I risked interjecting once she'd finished.

"Sorry ape, still no word on that. Whatever sources Aethyta has haven't given us anything since she lit out for the deep Terminus." She paused to check her omni-tool, "Anything else? No? Good. Let's go kick those bastards in the quad, last one to get a kill is buying the first round tonight."

There was a rumble of laughter as the meeting broke apart, most of our team good naturedly slapping one another on the back or loudly offering bets on just who would be the luckless individual. Unsurprisingly, I was quickly identified as the leading candidate there.

I just rolled my eyes and laughed it off before following Nynsi and Ghai towards our car. Trena would apparently be taking a separate one to avoid having both her and our backup squad leader in the same one. Though I did have to frown when my Batarian friend surreptitiously opened and closed her omni-tool.

My eyes narrowed. "Tell me you didn't just bet that I'd be the one buying drinks tonight."

"Of course not." She even managed a credible job of sounding hurt, though her upper pair of eyes wouldn't quite focus on me.

"You did." I almost jumped when Ghai actually spoke in her raspy whisper of a voice, and Nynsi started badly as well. "Two hundred credits."

"I see, thank you Ghai." The Asari bashfully nodded her head in return before opening the back door. I regarded Nynsi for a long moment as we approached the driver's side, before pointedly turning away without opening the door for her. She stared, mouth dropping open for a moment before she jerkily opened it on her own.

I said nothing after climbing in, joining Ghai in quietly observing the other teams clambering into their own vehicles. The loading process completed within a few minutes, giving me plenty of time to ignore the glances out of the corners of her eyes.

She waited until we were airborne, our small convoy merging into the northbound traffic high above the city. "You.. are actually upset with me?"

My arms crossed my chest as I tried to settle back. It was much harder to do with the armor on, though thankfully the full suit was far more comfortable than the civilian quality half plates I'd had to make due with before. "Why would I be upset about you betting that I would be the most useless of our team?"

"You will not be the most useless, but Cieran," She kept her left hand on the controls before reaching across and brushing her right across my arm, "You will be the most distracted. You are our only technical support, and we will need you using your mines to help with Ghai and Trena's biotics to control the fight. It is entirely possible you will not fire more than a few bursts with your weapon the entire time."

I felt my lips twitch, "You were practicing that explanation while we were waiting to take off, weren't you?"

Behind us, Ghai gave a barely audible sigh before firmly settling back and closing her eyes, apparently quite ready to ignore the pair of us altogether.

"What? No.. of course no... I rushed it, did I rush it?" She had the good grace to look a bit abashed.

"A bit." My left arm stretched out to tap her cheek, "The odds have to have been terrible."

"One to two." It came out as a mumble.

I snorted, "Good to know that my pride is only worth a hundred credits."

"You... will you _please_ stop teasing me? I was genuinely worried about you."

"Only if you give me your winnings." I didn't really like the idea of betting on me being the last person to _kill_ somebody, but I suppose it was one of their ways of dealing with what we were doing. I hoped. "And make _me_ dinner, even if you don't win the bet."

"By the Pillars... all right, fine." She grumbled a bit after, but still smiled when I ran a finger along the cartilage on her cheek.

The pair of us talked quietly, mostly about whatever random things we could think of. I was pretty sure she was doing it just to keep my mind off of what was coming... which I was thankful for. Ghai remained quietly in the back, apparently sleeping through our discussions, though her eyes snapped open when the alert came through that we were approaching the target.

"All right," Nynsi murmured, "Are you ready Cieran?"

I flicked open my omni-tool to make sure that both my incinerate and overload mines were still loaded, and nodded before reaching down to grab our helmets from where we'd left them in between us. "As ready as I'll ever be."

"Just stay close to me." She gave me a small smile, "I have enough armor for both of us."

The chuckle came out before I could stop it, "I'm the noble one remember? I should be offering to stand in front of you and let you use my shields to keep you safe."

"Maybe when you are in your power armor I will consider it." Her hands locked in our final approach before taking her helmet and firmly putting it on.

" _This is Trena, we're on final approach.. hit the ground running and let's kill these jack-asses._ "

I blew out a long breath as our speeder swooped down below the surrounding rooftops, the imposing form of the warehouse looming ahead. The sun slowly setting on the other side of it didn't help, the halo of light making it seem to glow ominously against the darkening sky.

_Well shit.. Here we go again._

* * *

**Next up is Chapter 10: The Mistake**

* * *

**Random**   **Facts from the Author:**

_I chose Batarians to go along with Asari as the main two races because they don't really get much time as anything besides enemies, even in other fanfics. I wanted to try and portray them from the perspective of a human who took the time to understand what to do, and not to do around them.. and then enjoy the interactions as they tried to figure out how to deal with a human that did things like be utterly polite and respectful in ways they understood._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not sure I like this chapter as much.. probably because I'm a bit overworked right now. As of the time I'm posting this I'm well past my fiftieth work hour this week with little end in sight.
> 
> In slightly better news I've finished my adjustments to the outline, and can confidently state there are only a few chapters left to go in this act. After which we'll have a short time-skip before launching into Act 2, which will be extremely action-oriented. I did try to pick up the pace a little bit here, I removed several scenes that would have delayed the approach to the warehouse until the next chapter, and I'd rather have it here as a minor cliff hanger than as a lead-up to what's going to happen there.
> 
> Hopefully everyone is still enjoying the fic despite the slow build up and unusual choice in romantic interests. Things should get pretty fun in the next few chapters, so even if you're not sure about this story please at least give it through Act 1.
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	10. The Mistake

_I don't own Mass Effect, nor will I profit from this story._

* * *

**Act I: Chapter 10: The Mistake**

The skycar had barely hit the ground before Ghai and I had popped our doors. Nynsi was a half moment behind, making sure that the vehicle actually stopped and remained running. After all, it would be pretty awkward for us if the communications jammer shut down because the car noticed nobody was inside of it and switched off.

" _Sharpshooters in place._ " Re'hat growled, _"Half a dozen guards on the roof, figure as many at the main door._ "

" _None at the side entrances, looks like they've kept them locked for us._ " Marn chuckled darkly, " _I'm sending a runner to keep them that way._ "

" _Good, everyone move up on the main doors!"_

The first gunshots began to _crack_ through the air as we ran. I glanced up in time to see a figure collapse in a spray of red mist three stories above me. There was maybe ten or so more rounds, intermixed with a very high pitched scream, before they ran out of targets.

 _"Roof clear, shifting to clear the main entrance._ "

I slowed a bit as we neared the corner, my armored boots almost skidding across the pavement as I shoved my back against the wall. Ghai hit next to me a moment later, closer to the edge than I was, her pistol casually held in both hands.

Nynsi, her scoped pistol drawn, stayed about a half step away, covering the turn. "Ghai, give us a count."

The armored Asari nodded, slid the foot to her right, then jerked her head just barely around before whipping back. "Nine. Open."

 _"Confirmed._ " Our sharpshooter, whose name I hadn't caught, sounded amused. " _I'll start on the far side. Asari, human, keep them from getting to cover._ _Go in five_."

I barely had time to wrap my head around that before Ghai nodded once, her body starting to glow with biotic light, and hurled herself around the edge. I might have hesitated for a moment, but not long enough for Nynsi to have to say or do anything, before pressing my feet down and sprinting after her.

The first of the True Sons died even before they noticed us emerge, a human woman with abominable fashion sense dropping limply as a round tore into her chest.

"JEN!" Another human, a male this time, actually dropped his bloody weapon and moved to run to the fallen woman's side. He made it about two steps before an accelerated grain of sand entered his left temple and exited the right. Most of the rest of the idiots around finally started to get the idea that they were under attack, just in time for Ghai and I to get involved.

She moved first, a blue blur rocketing from her hands to catch a Salarian trying to duck back inside. The little alien yelped as the pull hurled him back into the open, he was still trying to get back to his feat when our sniper put him down.

I didn't bother with my gun, there was no way I could shoot it accurately on the move. No point to an overload either, if these guys were anything like the other True Sons I'd seen, their shields were civilian level, _crap_ civilian level at that.

Which left one option really.

My right fingers flicked, starting up my omni-tool, and then I jerked them into the proper command combination and gestured straight at a pair of Turians standing a bit too close together. The tiny little tech mine, glowing balefully red, shot out from its launcher and whipped through the air. It curved slightly, following the tracking information my omni-tool was feeding it, reached the leftmost of the pair, and exploded into a low level incinerate.

I'm pretty sure the guy I hit died instantly, though that was mostly because he wasn't screaming like his partner as he burned. Ghai put him out of his, and our, misery with a single smooth shot, not even breaking stride.

" _Dammit. There goes fifty credits."_ Apparently that wasn't just chump change to our cover guy, because he quickly took out two more gang members, both Salarian, even as they belatedly drew their pistols and tried to figure out who to shoot.

I felt my mouth tug slightly as more moans and bitching filled the com channel before Trena tersely told everyone to shut the hell up and get their asses up to support us.

The last two standing were a Batarian and a Turian, though they were less standing and more actively running for their lives. A sharp _crack_ from behind me indicated Nynsi involving herself, the Batarian dropping limply as her scoped hand cannon destroyed something important in his back. The Turian might have made it if Ghai hadn't cocked her hand and hurled another blur after him, the pull reversing his momentum entirely as he flew screaming through the air. Our sharpshooter finally missed a shot, understandably so since his target was bouncing rapidly along the ground by that point, sending pieces of pavement flying as he cursed darkly.

I'd slowed to a walk at this point, and carefully shifted my gun from my left hand into my right, making sure to keep my left on it as a brace. Though it was pretty much just overkill when I started to pull the trigger, both of my squad mates firing their own weapons at around the same moment.

"Chen, you see movement inside?" Nynsi jogged past, slapping me on the shoulder as she did. "T'laria, we've cleared the entrance. Gang members only."

"We're here." Trena emerged from around the other corner, her pistol low in a two handed grip, Re'hat's short team following her. They settled against the massive, mostly shut hanger door on their side, as we slid into place on the other. "Good job. Marn, time?"

" _Twenty seconds. Confirmed all the doors sealed on our side, my girl added extra encryptions to the locks, she's joining the sharpshooter on that side._ "

"Good thinking. All right, as soon as she gets here, Re'hat, covering fire. Anything in the open I want it dead. My team to the left, Marn to the right." She regarded me for a long moment, "You got one ape?"

"Incinerate to the chest." I shook my head, thankful that my helmet was stopping the stench of scorched flesh from reaching me. I'd read about how bad it was, and no desire to find out first hand if I could help it. "These idiots must have picked up their shields from pawn shops."

" _Or garbage dumps_." Our sharpshooter, Chen apparently, sounded amused. _"This thing isn't exactly a Mantis or a Widow. If we hit them they dropped._ "

"Good to know." Re'hat chuckled, checking over his assault rifle. "Even if I did already lose twenty credits thanks to you Chen. You had to tell him to get involved."

_"I didn't expect him to have damned incinerate mines! I thought he'd just overload their already crappy shields or something."_

Trena cut in before anyone else could start up,"Enough bitching about that, I told you not to underestimate the ape."

I rolled my eyes, trying to keep my breathing slow and normal. "Thanks scales." _Though I'd appreciate it if Marn would hurry the fuck up so I can stop thinking about what just happened._ Thankfully I wasn't in shock like the first time, or even shaking like I'd started to at Forever.. but if it was all the same, I'd rather get on with it. The nine bodies decorating the ground with blood of various colors wasn't doing much for my concentration, and I shoved that awareness firmly down.

"Re'hat, if they try and leave by shuttle or truck or whatever the hell they've hauled those people in here with, close the damn doors before they can get out."

"Not a problem." His sharp teeth gleamed through the transparent portion of his helmet, "We'll keep them bottled up for you."

Marn, wearing even heavier armor than Nynsi, emerged from the same corner we'd come from, her team hard on her heels. Trena gave them a long moment to get collect themselves before nodding once.

"Move your asses!"

Re'hat was around the corner first, opening up almost at once as he saw something to his left. Short, controlled bursts were followed up by screams and a barrage of inaccurate counter-fire. He hardly seemed concerned about the occasional round ricocheting off of his barriers, moving deeper as his three squad members followed him. Their fire was less controlled than his, but was likely no less deadly.

A fact which I confirmed when Trena motioned for us to move in, and I felt my eyes go wide at the sight of what was happening.

Our first team had killed easily three times their number already, settling in behind our opponent's own parked vehicles as they happily continued to murder any of them stupid enough to try and fight back. Even with the dozen or so already dead, plus the fifteen we'd killed outside, there still seemed to be plenty of True Sons still running around, screaming, and occasionally shooting. Most of the warehouse was empty, and only the nearest section had anything of note.

Of course, the things of note were a few dozen battered looking skycars, and three massive trucks that probably contained the people we were here to retrieve... all of which left our opponents with plenty of cover. But just because they had it, didn't mean that they were bothering to use it intelligently. As far as I could tell from the bodies, it looked like they'd actually tried to rush Re'hat as soon as he'd moved in, and gotten slaughtered for it.

"How fucking many of them are there?" I snapped as I raced after Trena, whipping my hand to send another Incinerate to drive a trio of Salarians out of cover.

"Just keep killing them ape!" Her own body glowed as a singularity popped into existence, irresistibly pulling the screaming gang members up and into the air. Ghai hurled her own power up, and I got to experience a biotic combination in real life when the warp hit.

It was... _loud_.

I couldn't help but yelp and stagger back at the explosion of blue and purple light damn near blinded me. A hand grabbed me firmly by the shoulder, pushing me ahead as we kept going.

"Keep going, we are going to set up to flank them." Nynsi's voice was steady as my vision cleared and the ringing stopped, "I am sorry about that, we should have made sure your helmet was properly adjusted."

"Don't worry about it." I shook my head to clear the last of the dancing lights, "Warn me next time scales!"

"Suck it up ape!" Her pistol barked several times, "And get your ass over here and burn those fuckers out!"

"Athame's tits." I moved past Ghai, feeling strangely invulnerable as several weak shots rebounded off of my shields, hardly even budging the bar on my helmet's read-out. "What the hell kind of guns are these morons even using?"

"Cobbled together pieces of crap. Right there, behind that car."

"I see them." My fingers danced again as my arm swung, the omni-tool locking onto my target as the mine careened away from the launcher. Another muted flash of orange light followed a handful of seconds later. Two targets leaped away from the blast, dieing almost at once as Marn's team set up behind several cars opposite us and gunned them down. The last figure looked as if he'd taken the direct hit, his badly burned form crawling slowly along the ground. Nynsi stood up beside me, taking careful aim through her scope before putting a round through his skull.

Trena started to get up, snarled, and then shouted, "Re'hat! The trucks!"

" _I see them! Shutting the doors now!_ "

The massive trucks had started to shift, their rumbling engines barely audible over the gunfire and shouting. In front, the lead truck was already a good few feat off the ground, its heavy form slowly spinning towards the barely open hanger door. It apparently had begun to respond to an open signal from whoever was driving, because it had slid better than a yard open before one of Re'hat people had managed to find the manual override.

I half-rose, prepping a new tech mine before tossing it down range with a small grin on my face... which faded when the overload exploded against a thick shield surrounding the cab.

"What the fuck?" I dropped back into cover, double checking my settings. "Who the hell puts barriers around a _truck_? That's not a gang level expense."

"No," Nynsi growled, swapping her overheated scoped weapon for her short range model before resuming fire, "Keep hitting it!"

I did, hurling more overloads down range as quickly as my launcher could recharge itself and the omni-tool could configure the next mine. Between me draining the shields, and whoever was on the door finally managing to get it sliding towards closing entirely, the driver panicked.

We had a few moments warning before they accelerated, trying to build up speed to simply ram their way free. Which might have worked if they'd had more space to get some velocity, or if the massive hanger door hadn't been built as sturdily as it had apparently been.

"Re'hat! Move your ass!"

" _Get the fuck clear!"_ Four Batarians bolted just before the cab impacted. And here I thought the biotic explosion had been loud, this was easily twice as bad. Metal squealed and screeched as the truck rebounded slightly, the barriers finally failing entirely as the driver floored his abused powerplant, apparently just trying to force his way through.

I didn't wait for the order before priming another mine and sending it straight for the engine. Apparently they'd thought the shielding was enough, or if there had been armor around it it had been breached by the impact, because when the little mine burst into electrical tendrils the rumbling coughed and rattled to a halt. Thankfully I was pretty sure all of our own people were out from under it before the multi-ton vehicle's mass effect fields failed, dropping it straight onto several cars in a titanic explosion of noise.

Another dozen or so True Sons, probably most of what was left, died around then, darting out of cover to try and get away from the crash. Most of them hadn't even been really threatened by it, and I winced even as I returned my gun to both hands and fired off a few bursts.

_Fucking kids really... kids with crap guns and crap shields._

" _Good overload human, got them blocked in nicely."_ Marn praised me as the other two trucks engine's cut out, their bulky frames settling back down. " _Let's figure out who these... by the pillars.."_

One of the cabs had opened up, a slim form dropping out before darting into cover. That wouldn't have been enough for Marn to curse though, not even when two more figures quickly dropped out to move after the first. I was pretty sure the cursing was because of the dark blue armor with a white logo prominently displayed on the shoulders.

"Athame's sacred ass... this just got complicated." Trena breathed out slowly, "Marn! Suppressing fire! Keep those assholes in cover. Re'hat, get your fucking team in order and clear out these gang fucks. You three with me!"

She was up and moving even before she was done, the three of us jumping up to run after her. The other truck finished settling, three more figures jumping from the doors and darting into the cover provided by a pair of cars. Well, the wreckage of cars really, Marn and her people were pumping enough rounds into them to ensure that they wouldn't fly again.

Trena went into a long soccer slide, crouching firmly behind a massive toolbox. It wasn't much, but we were far enough back from the veritable car park that there weren't really many options. I slid in next to her, while Nynsi and Ghai crouched behind a nearby tooling station."Ape, these guys will actually have shields and guns worth a damn. I need overloads on command, and I need you to stay in cover, got it?"

"Got it." I managed to get out through my panting. Panting? When the hell had I gotten so winded? I shook that off and manged to check my omni-tool, confirming that I already had an overload ready.

"We've almost got them flanked, so expect a lot of fire our way as soon as we open up. I'll handle the barrier, Ghai, Shaaryak, focus on whoever the ape shorts out." The pair of women nodded firmly, fingering their pistols. "Right.. now!"

The four of us jerked up, my right arm and fingers already moving. The nearest Blue Sun mercenary was a Turian, who caught the motion in the corner of his eye. The time it took him to swing his long carbine around was enough for the tech mine to cross the distance between us, sparks flying as his shields took the hit. He jerked heavily a moment later, snarling in pain as pistol rounds blew into his armor. To my horror though, he didn't drop like I expected, instead firing off a pair of quick shots directly at Trena and I before ducking back into cover.

Both of his shots missed, screeching past us, but I still dropped firmly back behind the metal box frantically watching the tiny indicator on my omni-tool detailing the recharge rate on my launcher. Pistol rounds continued to bark from our side, Trena swearing as she threw up a barrier just in time for a carnage round to slam into it, making her wince visibly in pain.

 _"_ Hurry up you little piece of shit." I could barely hear my own mutters over the gunfire.

The moment it blinked green I was back up, my eyes snapping to the next target as the barrier dropped. The Turian was down, slumped over the car's trunk with his helmet and skull shattered. I held my fingers above the glowing launch command until a tall humanoid form rose up next to the body, a truly monstrous shotgun clutched in his hands. The overload was away the moment he'd even started to show up, and I could feel my heart hammering as he swung the barrel in our direction. He fired about when my tech power hit, his shields shorting out at the same time as a pillow swung by a giant hit me in the chest. My shields-low alarm started shrieking as I fell on my ass from the impact.

"You all right ape!?" Trena glowed as she put a new barrier, cursing each time something hammered at it."Athame's ass... fuck!"

"I'm..." I coughed, shook my head, and double checked that I wasn't bleeding. "I'm good." _Holy fuck.. my shields aren't bad but he dropped them in one go, and left a good amount of dents on my chest. Without those barrier upgrades we bought I'd probably be dead._

 _"Down to three of them."_ Re'hat's satisfied voice came just after a feminine scream of pain, " _Want to rush them?_ "

"Ape, stay here and cover us. Re'hat, I want your fucking weapons glowing! Marn, go in three!"

Scrambling to my knees, I braced my gun in both hands as I tried to catch my breath. Naturally there wasn't time for me to really recover before Trena, Ghai, and Nynsi all vaulted from cover, and Re'hat's team opened up on full auto. My shields were barely recovered, and it took an effort of will to make myself rise up enough to lay out my arms and gun along the top of the box. Blowing out a breath and making sure I wasn't aiming too close to my friends, I joined in, firing controlled bursts to maximize how long my little gun could keep shooting.

The three of them, plus five Batarians running in from the opposite side, closed the short distance quickly enough. One of the Blue Suns must have figured out what was happening, because a thick voice shouted something that I couldn't make out over our gunfire. Whatever the order was, it was too late.

Trena, Ghai, and Marn skipped the effort of moving around the cars, opting instead to simply vault them. I couldn't quite follow the confused melee that followed, especially after everyone else arrived and join in, but at the end of it there were three dead mercs and Marn was cradling one of her arms.

The silence that followed was practically deafening. I was in the middle of glancing around when my eyes found the crashed truck still draped over several cars near the entrance. Except now the driver's side door was wide open.

 _That first truck..._ "Chen! Did anyone try and get out of here?"

" _Not a soul, human._ "

"What is it ape?"

I kept my gun up, "Where's the driver of that one?"

"Spread out and head back." Trena suited action to word, carefully clambering back over a shot to hell skycar, "Re'hat, get your team checking out the trucks for the cargo. Everyone else, if they aren't in uniform I want them alive... we need some fucking answers as to what these assholes are even doing on planet."

_No shit... this is Eclipse territory._

I'd looked up a bit of information on the three major merc groups not long after the attack on the shop. By and large they were just like what you expected from the games, but even more antagonistic to each other than I'd originally thought. It made Garrus pissing them _all_ off enough to work together to kill him even more impressive really. Still, while they might fight a bit on Omega, they each had their own enclaves that were considered more or less inviolate. And Illium, where Sederis herself had her headquarters, was very much the Eclipse's sanctum.

_And I highly doubt that the only Blue Suns here were those six... what the fuck did we just walk into?_

There was a concerned rumble of agreement before we all started slowly heading back. Now that things had calmed down, a bit, I got a better look at all of the bodies. Batarian, Human, Salarian, Turian, all young... and most were very much dead. Occasionally one or two would twitch or moan in pain, only to be quickly finished off by one of our Batarian comrades.

Nynsi had quickly gotten back to me, carefully staying close as we moved. She handled the few we found without a comment. I hid to fight down a bit of bile when a human kid, Asian, he couldn't have been older than sixteen, started begging as he tried to hold his stomach shut. Her pistol interrupted him before he could finish, and his eyes glazed over as his heart stopped.

_Welcome to your new life Cieran... welcome to the shit. That kid would have executed you to make his 'friends' happy._

" _Found her!"_ Marn growled, " _Asari bitch."_

We quickly converged on where the heavily armored form was holding a pistol with her good arm, covering a trembling Asari who'd apparently been trying to force open one of the side doors that we'd sealed to prevent anyone from fleeing. She was trembling violently as the rest of us moved up, and it only got worse when she saw Trena push her way to the front.

" _T'laria, we've got the slaves. Figure forty of them in each truck.. not in the best of shape. Mixed species."_

I couldn't read her face through the helmet, but the fact that her entire body started glowing was a pretty good indicator of how pissed she was.

"By the goddess you will explain this to me, or I will fucking ship you to Thessia and hand you over to the Justicars." Trena's voice was harder than I'd ever heard, and I had to fight not to take a step back. Several of our squad members _did_ shuffle a few steps away as it was.

"Oh goddess... goddess..." the Matron whimpered, pressing herself against the door as firmly as she could. "I don't know... I just signed the forms... please... goddess.."

"Do a better job than that bitch." A slim hand drew her hand cannon, pointedly lowering it so that our prisoner would have the best view down the barrel possible. "I'm sure you can."

"They... they... they needed someone to make the paperwork. To transfer them! I don't know where they bring them in... or what they do... I swear! I just bring the forms!"

"To sell them into legal slavery."

"It's.. goddess, please.." A stain slowly appeared around her crotch as she lost control of herself, "Please... just the forms... I d-don't know anything!"

"Pity." I didn't jump when she pulled the trigger, blue blood spraying across the doorway as the twitching body collapsed. Her armored visage stared at the corpse as she started to give us orders,"Re'hat, detail your drivers to get the trucks out of here. If you have to, get everyone out of the first one and push it out of the way once the door is open. Marn, collect the mercs bodies and get them back to Xerol's place. I want their omni-tools stripped for everything they've got."

The two squad leaders nodded quickly, obviously glad to get away from the cold fury of our leader. _She didn't even swear once.._

"Little Shaaryak. I need Ghai here to watch my back. Take Cieran, go to his place and mine, pack everything up that we'd need for an extended stay with your uncle. Com him on the way and tell him to send a team to pick everything up from my shop." She took a long breath, "And see if he can get a hold of Aethyta. I don't think the Suns will be pleased that we just wrecked one of their operations, and she might not be expecting them."

We both nodded once before quietly backing away, though I hardly dared to breath until we'd gone a dozen paces.

"I am starting to regret signing up for this." Nynsi murmured as we headed for the exit.

"I'm..." I started to agree, but stopped when I saw two of Re'hat's people guiding prisoners out of the wrecked truck.

They were... were...

I suddenly had a whole new appreciation for the GI's and Russians who had found the concentration camps in Europe, and I no longer felt bad in the slightest for the people we'd killed. The worst was a naked little Asari girl, she couldn't have even passed her first decade, who had to be helped along by an equally emaciated Turian female. "Not. Not anymore."

She'd stopped as well, her helmet following them before she nodded slowly. "It... gets worse than that, my noble human. I have seen far, far worse."

"Then I'm glad we're doing something about it." I shook my head, forcing myself to turn away "Let's go."

Looking back on it later, I'd be glad for the anger. It might have already been after sunset, but the day was long from over.

* * *

**Next up is Chapter 11: The Night**

* * *

**Random**   **Facts from the Author:**

_Illium: Illium was chosen as the arrival planet because of the dichotomy of it. As civilized as the citadel but at the same time as lawless as Omega. It provides plenty of opportunity for stories, chaos, etc without having to provide a ship to gallivant across the galaxy in._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, this basically turned out to be entirely action, but it was fun in its own way. I'd thought about making the True-Sons / Blue-Suns connection a bit less obvious in the names, but thought it went well as an obvious-in-hindsight bit. Plus there's a bit more to the name that is indicated at first glance, which we'll find out about moving forwards.
> 
> So.. gang members die easily. Actual mercenaries not so much, I suppose that's a good lesson as any to take from this chapter. Things are going to continue to be interesting in the next chapter, and things will tone down only slightly in the final chapter in the arc after that (yes, act 1 will be 12 chapters long).
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	11. The Night

_I don't own Mass Effect, nor will I profit from this story._

* * *

**Act I: Chapter 11: The Night**

Nynsi didn't bother with the VI after we took off, instead opting to push her aircar's overpriced engine to its max.

While she was pushing the limits of what the inertial compensator could handle during take off, I was throwing my helmet to the floor and massaging my temples as I tried to process what the hell was going on now. As I occupied myself with that, she wasted little time in bringing up her uncle's number, and tersely passed on what Trena had asked her to. Xerol let out a few oaths at finding out what we discovered, but rallied quickly and assured us he would have his people clean out Trena's shop and get our gear to his place within the hour.

" _You be careful Nyn. The Blue Suns... you know what they're like._ "

"I know Uncle. And no, neither of them were there." My curiosity spiked momentarily, before I firmly reminded it that her business was her own. She could tell me about it if, and when, she wanted to.

" _I was not going to ask my dear."_ His voice was gentler than I had ever heard it, _"I will see you in a few hours._ "

We flew in silence for ten minutes or so after that, long enough to reach the main traffic lanes and merge in. Just another car speeding home after a long day of work.

"What is it Cieran?" Nynsi's voice was gentle when she broke the quiet, as if she was afraid I was about to fall apart. "Are you all right?"

"No, I'm not." My left arm shot out, grabbing a flask of water from the dashboard. "We just pissed off the second largest mercenary gang in the _galaxy_. And I don't doubt for a fucking moment that they'll guess we were involved." The liquid was pleasantly cold, but it didn't do much of anything to help my state of mind.

Her right eyes both glanced over at me before returning to the dash. "Changed your mind about regrets?"

An image of the tiny little Asari kid, wearing nothing but tattered cloth that couldn't conceal the skin clinging to her protruding bones, flashed through my memory. "No... no I don't. Just... I thought this would be simpler, I guess. Or maybe this is my new way of handling the fact that we just killed people, even if they really fucking deserved it."

" _Knowledge grants us strength, for it banishes fear through understanding_. Third tenat of the second pillar." Her right hand reached across, gently squeezing my forearm. Well, firmly squeezing probably, it just felt gentle through the armor. "What knowledge did we gain today?"

I blew out a long breath and closed my eyes. "All right.. so what did we learn. The Blue Suns are involved on Illium. The True Sons are either partnering with them for their own gain, or are outright owned by them. They're working together to bring slaves in, reason unknown. There were far more gang members there than we expected. Their equipment was terrible."

She was nodding slowly as my eyes opened. "I have my own thoughts on each of those, but I would like to hear yours."

My lips twitched slightly, "Why? To keep my mind off of my noble human failings?"

"Your nobility is not a failing, merely painful." Her hand squeezed again, "But yes, it will help keep your mind off things, and even as fast as we are going it will be more than an hour before we arrive."

I shifted the flask from my left to my right so that I could take her hand with mine, "I still don't understand why you like me."

It was her turn for her lips to twitch, "Perhaps we can talk about that once we are at my uncle's."

I snorted, "Ok... the True Sons we've encountered, except for the Salarian at Forever, have uniformly had terrible equipment. Shields that are poor civilian quality belt models at best, and their guns looked liked they'd been bought from scrapyards. Not even your uncle would sell that level of garbage. Pistols only for the most part too, not quite the variety you'd normally see from a gang."

"What do you think that means?"

"I think.." I frowned at the glittering skyline of Nos Astra as I thought about it, "If this gang is so impressive, and large, why don't they have better weapons? For that matter, they have to be making money hand over fist with how much territory they seem to have. Plus this slaves to indentured servants scam. Where is it all going? Either a hidden agent is lining their pockets, or the kids we've seen are just... puppets. Dancing to someone's, probably a very well armed and equipped someone's, tune."

"The Blue Suns?"

"Why would they bother? I mean, if their goal is to raise a gang on Illium to the level where it can put a dent in their main rival they're doing a shitty job of it. If those kids had had even affordable weapons and armor we'd have needed a small army to break in."

"So we can assume that that is not their goal." Her hand briefly detached from mine to adjust the interior lighting before returning, "But the money could still be going there."

"It could," I allowed, "But again, why? I'm sure there's enough corporations on Illium that would be willing to cut a deal, even against the Eclipse. They wouldn't have to bother with the middle-men of a racist gang. Plus, I find it hard to believe that I-Sec would be so incompetent or corrupted that they wouldn't notice gang members shuffling that many credits off world."

She let out a long, seething sigh. I was pretty sure that was the Batarian equivalent of an angry huff at this point, but I wasn't about to ask. "So we are still left with no idea of where the money is going, why the gang had so many people present, or what the real relationship between they and the Blue Suns is."

"Pretty much. Dammit. I hate not knowing things." My free hand rose up to rub at my temples, "This is going to drive me insane. Maybe we should have taken one of the mercs prisoner."

"What is the human saying... hindsight is ten-ten?"

"Twenty-twenty." I corrected with a shrug... right before a new, worrying, thought hit me. "Nynsi, if we were running the same kind of operation they were, we'd make sure we were in constant contact with our people, right? In case someone tried to double cross us?"

"Of course." Her visible eyes narrowed as she actually growled, before she punched up the car's communications system, "T'laria, you there?"

" _We're just leaving. Status."_

 _"_ Still en route. Why did we not consider that the jamming would tip off anyone listening in on the deal?'

There was a long pause, _"Athame's... because we fucking assumed they were goddess damned idiots that's why! Re'hat, Marn, haul ass dammit! We might have company on the way out! You two floor it, and keep all six eyes opened. Good thinking there Shaaryak."_

 _"_ It was Cieran, actually." And damn me if she didn't sound a bit proud.

" _The ape? Huh. I'd hate to have seen what his brain was like before something took bites out of it._ " There was the sound of a car door closing, " _We're loaded up and heading out. If we start screaming our heads off about being attacked, don't fucking come back. Divert to Xerol's place and stay there. If you fucking see anything suspicious at the apartments, get the fuck out."_

"Understood T'laria."

" _Good. Keep the ape safe._ "

I rolled my eyes as the call ended, and gave my companion an exasperated glance when she patted my arm affectionately.

"I didn't need you to keep me safe back there."

Her hand found mine again,"And I hope that will continue."

I spared a glance at the navigation console, sighing as I realized we had another forty minutes to go. My hands weren't shaking, much, which I was glad for, but the adrenaline was definitely wearing down. It felt like I could just collapse into the chair and sleep, not even the hastily buried anger at the condition of those... people was enough to keep me up. "New topic before I pass out."

She chuckled lightly, "I am not sure we can continue talking about what happened without raising more questions."

"Me either." I agreed with a sigh, "Or me getting pissed off at... yeah, something else."

"What form of weaponry were you considering for when you get your suit functional?"

"Well, I was thinking about a Lancer." I trailed off as she stared at me in unabashed horror, and from there the debate was on. She was all for me using a Lich, apparently the just as expensive and rare precursor to the Revenant. While I accepted her argument that the suit's servos would easily compensate for the normally ruinous recoil, the fact was that I could probably buy a few _dozen_ Lancers for the same price, and still have enough money on the side to upgrade them all and have enough spare parts to last for years.

"Cieran, Hahne-Kedar may make good armor, but no one knows how they have the contract for your people's military." She explained patiently, "Their weapons are below average, at best."

"Fine, what about Asari tech then?" I wasn't about to give in. I'd never been a fan of the massive light machine guns in game, and I didn't see much of a reason to change my mind now. I wasn't Commander Shepard dammit, or even Xerol. There was no armory officer ready to replace worn out parts that cost more than most pistols waiting for me. "The Visage line has a good reputation."

She chewed on that for a moment, still not quite looking happy. "Is it not the point of powered armor to wield heavier weaponry?"

"I prefer to focus on the armor portion of that name." I admitted, "And I'm going to have enough problems keeping it running once I start taking it out into fights. Paying for a high priced weapon on top of _those_ spare parts and I won't have enough money left to buy food."

"You wou..." Briefly, it looked she was going to say something else before she quickly shook herself and moved on, "... _may_ be right. Would you try to link them?"

I blinked, "What?"

What followed was a minor history lesson into her uncle's past, and an interesting idea. Apparently, when he was younger and shortly after he had been exiled from the Hegemony, he'd found himself on Omega trying to make it as a minor arms dealer. While there, he had run across a small-time competitor, a human, who had only worked on Krogan weaponry.

That was strange enough, what had really caught Xerol's attention was a custom gun the man had made for a Blood Pack warlord from the wreckage of two old M-4 Longswords. Rather than trying to scrap one to fix the other, as most people would have done, he cobbled them both together into a single, dual-barreled weapon. It had been unwieldy as hell and prone to break-downs, but the Krogan had adored the idea and demanded he make a better version.

Alas, the poor human in question had done something to irritate Aria, who had had him spaced before he could finish it. Xerol had managed to break into his shop and steal all of the plans before he'd left for Illium, but had never bothered to explore the idea further. After all, there were next to no Krogan on Illium, and not many others were crazy enough to use a weapon that had better than average odds of melting itself into slag if everything wasn't put together just right.

"That's.. an idea." I allowed after she finished, "Sounds tricky as hell though. I mean, the heat sinks, the coolant lines, not to mention bracing both barrels against the recoil.. maybe some kind of alternator. You wouldn't be shooting dual shots but with a good enough heat sink you could fire damn near forever between the two.."

"Perhaps it can be your next project?"

"Yeah.. maybe." I blew out a long breath as the familiar lines of the River District at night grew steadily closer. My hands found my helmet, bringing it firmly back onto my head. I let Nynsi set the cruise control before helping her get her own into place, and we began our approach.

"Obvious but fast, or quite but slow?" She asked as we began our long, curving descent that would plant us on the apartment building.

I worked out what she meant in my head. _Either land on the walk outside the doors or land on the roof and try to act normal. The first will get everyone's attention, but that might not be a bad thing. Plus we'll be in and out fast. The latter will keep us with a lower profile, but we'll have to navigate stairs, and we're already in armor, and that's not really usual around here... but still, this isn't the Manufacturing District, or even the lowtown near Forever._

"Quiet but slow." While Illium was by and large a corrupt cesspool of a planet, that didn't mean the average Asari citizen was. If we were in one of the worse off districts it might have been different, but the River District was fairly middle class and had a passing acquaintance with law and order. And a car landing on the walkway, followed by an armed and armored human leaping out and dashing into someone's apartment was definitely going to cause a few calls to be made. _And that is another level of complication that we really don't need right now._

Nysni nodded slightly, "Probably the better idea."

Thankfully, there weren't all that many people out and about, even though it was hardly that late yet. The few people on the rooftop garage, probably getting home from work or getting ready to go out and party, scattered as she brought us down hard and fast, though their cursing didn't reach my ears until I popped my door open.

We didn't waste any time after making sure the car was secured, running for the stairwell and starting down. I did almost run smack into a young maiden, who I'm pretty sure was both a neighbor and a conquest of Trena's, when we exited, narrowly brushing past her with a quick, "Sorry!"

Between the exertions of the fight and the run to get there, I was panting again by the time we reached Trena's door. I managed to pound out the combination she'd shown me the last time she'd changed it, while Nynsi kept her eyes on the thin crowd traversing the walkways. A few gave us curious glances, but mostly they seemed to be locals.

"Kean, trying to track down your boss again?" One, an older Matron shook her head, slowing as she approached, adjusting a few slim bags of take-out as she did.

I motioned for Nynsi to head in the moment it beeped, staying long enough to nod, "Ran off with another Maiden," I tossed my helmet as if I was rolling my eyes, "We were supposed to go shooting this morning, I've been trying to track her down ever since."

"That matron really needs to find someone to settle down with," She huffed before moving away, "Good luck, young one."

Thankfully her _blasé_ attitude and our conversation did much to assuage the few that had been giving us suspicious looks. Most rolled their own eyes or gave little shrugs before continuing on their way. I gave a final look around for anything painfully obvious out of the ordinary, didn't see anyone running at me screaming with a gun, and ducked inside.

"How does she live in this _sty_?" Nynsi's voice carried from the bedroom. I knew that she hired a maid to come in from time to time, and that the poor thing deserved a massive raise, but it was clear she hadn't been by lately. The usual debris from food was all over the dining room area, and random junk from work was piled here and there where she'd brought it back to work on.

"Safe is under the bed," I just avoided tripping over what looked like a cooling unit for... something or another. "Grab that, I'll get her spare omni-tool and gun."

The bedroom as as bad as the rest of the place, covered in clothing tossed aside more or less at random. Not all of it hers, either.

Nynsi, muttering something about how much Asari had in common with lowborns, was digging through a pile of pants to find what she was looking for, and I quickly moved past her to the dresser. Not bothering to be organized, I rifled through all of the drawers as quickly as I could, throwing things left and right, while grabbing what was important as I did so.

_Spare omni-tool.. check. Container of tech mines.. check. Spare biotic amp-clip.. check._

_"_ Got it." I turned to see her pull a small safe out, easily hefting it into a duffel bag she'd probably just grabbed from the floor. Tossing my own finds in there, we took a moment to throw a small mound of clothes in more or less at random. Well, I was doing it randomly, I'm sure Nynsi had some kind of pattern to it, but I didn't have time to tease her about it. As soon as it was reasonably full we closed it up, and she pulled her head and arm through a strap to carry it over one shoulder.

We were out the door maybe ten minutes after we'd first landed, breaking into a quick jog as we made our way along the building to my flat.

_So far so good._

Now... it has to be said that I was tired, probably still feeling the effects of what had happened earlier, and not really at my best. Normally, there was no way I'd utter something so obviously asking for something to go wrong, even in my own head. We made it to my door, and in, just fine. I didn't have as much to grab, I didn't have a safe for one, so we stuck with the same bag. My own back-up omni-tool, my extra containers of tech mines, the spare blocks of incendiary ammunition, and a few hundred credits I'd taken out as cash in case of an emergency. Kind of like this one.

I'd just tossed the last ammo block into the bag when my doorbell rang, and an Asari voice came across the speakers.

" _Illium Security Mr. Kean, we know you're in there. Please open the door._ "

My omni-tool was lit up at once as I brought up the exterior cameras, though my head was already processing that something was wrong. The first thing I-Sec did as a matter of course was confirm the identity of whoever was inside. They did _not_ announce who they _thought_ was in there first. Of course, if that hadn't been obvious, the two figures waiting on either side of the doorway definitely were. If I'd only had the usual cameras we'd have had no idea they were there at all, and I was suddenly quite happy about being as paranoid as I was.

"Two Asari dressed as I-Sec, two unknowns on either side of the door.." I quickly summarized as Nynsi dropped the bag and drew her close range pistol, "..looks like they've got silenced pistols."

"Buy me time." She hefted my spare container of tech mines before darting out of the room.

I blew out a long breath and activated my mic, "Evening officers, I'm afraid I'm a little.. inconvenienced right now. You caught me about to shower." One of the Asari smothered a grin. "What can I do for you?"

" _We had additional questions about the gunfight that occurred a few days ago, at the bar called Forever."_ The one who hadn't smiled spoke, her tone professional. " _I'm afraid we need to take you in to speak with the detective in person._ "

 _Last chance girls._ "Huh. Detective... you know, I never got her name. Tall, ugly thing right?"

The other Asari chuckled sycophantically, " _I wouldn't say that to her face, true or not."_ And there we go. The detective who had interviewed us at Forever had been short and cute enough to make Trena stammer all over-herself. " _We don't mean to rush you, if you could simply open the door we'll wait inside for you to get dressed."_

I let myself hesitate until Nynsi ducked back into the bedroom and jerked my head towards the bathroom. She nodded, handed me something that made my blood go cold, and then darted into it. The shower and fans started up a few moments later. I hit the bedroom lights a moment later, leaving the only illumination that from the now cracked bathroom door. "All right, just don't break anything, I'll be out in ten minutes or so."

It was monstrously hard to make myself press the open button, but I managed it as I took the few steps to place myself next to the doorway, but on the opposite side from the bathroom. My eyes tracked the two unknowns darting into the apartment first, the Asari chatting loudly behind them, even as my left hand tightened around the knife Nynsi had handed me. Reaching behind my back, I pulled out my gun with my other hand, keeping it low and against my side as I waited in the darkness.

They didn't waste any time. The first form turned out to be human, a dark skinned man, holding a silenced pistol in one hand and some kind of syringe in the other. His gaze was locked onto the bathroom, his pace slowing as he stalked forwards. Following him was the barrel chested form of a Turian male, his weapon up and covering his partner's advance, but his own eyes remained on the glowing bathroom door, and the steam slowly starting to curl outwards.

For my part, my gaze was locked onto the back of the Turian's neck, were a Blue Sun was staring pointedly at me. In the background, the Asari continued talking loudly about the latest clawball game, sounding as if they were still in the small entrance hall.

I blew out a long breath, acknowledged that I had no idea what the fuck I was doing, and stealthily padded out from my corner. Neither of them noticed the third member of their party creeping along, and I carefully closed the distance between myself and the Turian.

The human hesitated for a long moment just outside of the doorway, nodded once, and then kicked it open before darting in. The Turian moved to follow, but jerked to a sensible stop when I rammed the barrel of my gun into the back of his neck.

"Don't fucking move." I snarled as quietly as I could, trying to keep an eye on the bedroom's door as well as on my opponent. "Drop the gun."

There was a muffled grunt from the bathroom that made the alien stiffen, but the pistol dropped limply from his clawed hands regardless. The moment it did I took a half step back, remembering enough movie and book lore to remember that keeping the gun there was an invitation for him to bat it away. _And then probably disembowel you with those talons he's got_

His partner emerged a moment later, his hands firmly on his head and a very broken nose dribbling blood down onto his lips. Nynsi emerged after him, her own gun trained firmly on his back.

"You sure you don't want some company in there?" The less serious Asari called out, her voice trying to be alluring.

"I'm considering it." I called back, mentally cursing the fact that we didn't have anything on hand to tie these guys up with, and desperately tried to come up with a plan. "Though I don't think your partner would approve."

There was a loud giggle that I was pretty sure was fake, "She doesn't, but she won't tell on us."

Nynsi nodded firmly to me, then gestured for our two prisoners to move aside. Apparently their desire to keep living overrode any loyalty they had to their partners out there, because they both kept their mouths shut when I spoke up again.

"Well... all right. But just you... and if you promise not to say anything to the Detective."

"Only if you do." Her voice had moved closer, but still had that come-hither tilt "Do you want to unwrap me, or should get it out of the way?"

"By all means..." It was hard to make my voice lower, as if I was actually interested, but I didn't think I did that bad of a job. Apparently it was enough to convince her, because she strolled into the bedroom a moment later, her gun not even in her hand.

"I thought you'd have handled him by... oh." She'd started speaking in a severe whisper.. before realizing that the man pointing the gun at her was very much not on her side. "Well..."

"Amp off. Gun belt on the floor. You start glowing at all and I pull this trigger until you stop." My heart was hammering as she slowly reached up, but she quietly removed the biotic amplifier clipped to the back of her neck. It wouldn't stop her from using biotics, but it would make any kind of concentration difficult, and thus make them less dangerous. In theory. Her belt, gun still attached, hit the floor a moment later, before Nynsi gestured for her to join her companions kneeling by the wall. Once the Asari was there, she made sure to kick the gun belt and the silenced pistol into the bathroom before closing the door to a crack again.

_Three down, one to go._

"Relta?"

Our newest companion pressed her lips together tightly, but said nothing.

Apparently the last one was the smarter of the pair, not that I'd really doubted it. "Nicely done human, I didn't hear a thing."

"Thanks." I called back, firing up my omni-tool to make sure the door was locked and secured. Not that I _wanted_ to be locked in an inclosed space with an angry biotic and three prisoners that all probably wanted to kill me, but if my alternative was to let her get out and call for help.. I activated another sub-routine to start up a low level jamming field. It wasn't much, I'd set it up mostly to make sure that Trena and I could talk without much worrying of any bugs the Matriarch had planted transmitting out. Still, a serious setup could punch through it without a problem, and I was gambling on her not having that. "So, what's your plan now?"

"I was thinking of strolling in there and killing you." I could hear the shrug in her voice, "Orders are orders after all."

I shifted back to my original spot, keeping my gun trained on the doorway the entire time. In the corner of my vision, I watched Nynsi fire up her own omni-tool after shifting her pistol to her other hand. "No chance to buy my way out? This is Illium after all."

"Sorry human, not today."

And then shit got _loud_.

Nynsi firmly pressed a button, and what had to have been at least six or seven overload mines detonated in the apartment proper. The blue lightning flickered wildly in the hallway in time with an Asari yelping in shock and pain. Gripping my gun tightly in my right hand, and my left supporting it as best I could while still holding onto the carving knife, I darted out through the doorway. Our last opponent looked liked she'd been close to at least two of them, and was cursing up a storm as she staggered back to her feat, smoke curling from her armor.

Not wanting to give her a chance to use the shotgun she was leaning on, I moved straight for her, holding the trigger down as I went. Most of the rounds went wild, but enough hit her that she staggered back with another snarl of pain. By luck more than by my aim, a few shots tracked across her gun, sending it flying from her hands.

A guttural curse and a swirling corona of light was all the warning I had before _I_ was the one flying, this time in the opposite direction.

 _What the hell?_ I didn't have time to process whatever biotic power she'd just used before her fist slammed into my helmet, knocking me back into the wall. _How did she cross the...?_

I tried to force my arms up to bring my gun into place, only to cry out in pain when a spinning kick sent the sub-machine gun flying. There was a blur of motion as she reversed herself, the other leg slamming into my side and making me stagger to a knee as my head rebounded off the wall, the knife dropping from my limp hand.

"Cieran!" Any help Nynsi could offer was apparently moot, because a moment later there was shouting and gunfire from the bedroom.

 _Nynsi._ My opponent, apparently considering me mostly neutralized, took a moment to take a quick glance at whatever was happening in there. _Oh no you don't bitch._

Slipping into motions ingrained over hundreds of practices during my youth, I rose into a low crouch before snapping forwards. Seeing the motion, she tried to turn, but I'd already crossed the short distance, my arms whipping around her legs as my forehead hit her stomach. She had time for a startled squawk before I lifted her off her feet by her hips and slammed her into the ground.

The impact rattled her, giving me time to scramble up her body, my right forearm firmly finding her throat. She tried to arc her back, twisting to find a way to get me off. Countless wrestling matches already had my body splaying out to one side, keeping my weight entirely on her neck and chest while I counterbalanced with my legs to prevent being moved. Her arms flailed wildly until my left hand clamped firmly down on a wrist, twisting it until her already pain filled grimace turned into one of agony.

I kept the pressure up, brutally choking her until her movements slowed and her eyes rolled back. I still didn't let up until I was sure that she was out, cautiously pulling back so that I didn't end up killing her.

_Thanks old man... folk-style for the win. You always did say it would help me defend myself some day._

"Cieran! Are you all right!?" Nynsi sounded as exhausted as I felt.

"Yeah..." I coughed, for the first time noticing just how badly my chest was hurting. "Are you?"

"I am." Her tone turned apologetic, "We are out of prisoners though."

"No." I watched as the chest of the Asari under me slowly rise and fell, exhaustion nearly overwhelming me. "We've still got one. Let's get her to your uncle and see if we can get some answers."

* * *

**Next up is Chapter 12: The Questions**

* * *

**Random**   **Facts from the Author:**

_Nynsi was originally named Shaaryak, and neither she nor Xerol had a last name. I changed that after realizing that I'd have to get her a nickname almost immediately to make that mouthful workable in common conversation._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, the aftermath of the fight ended up in another fight.. so in the next chapter maybe we'll finally start to get some answers eh?
> 
> So here we realize that Cieran and allies made a bit of a mistake by underestimating their opponents, though how much that may have bitten them in the ass, if it did at all, won't be revealed until the next chapter. Also, remember that any ideas that the characters come up with in regards to what may be happening is just that: Their idea. I make no comment on if they are right or wrong, you'll just have to find out when they do.
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	12. The Questions

_I don't own Mass Effect, nor will I profit from this story._

* * *

**Act I: Chapter 12: The Questions**

Looking back on it, I have no idea how the hell we got out of there without getting stopped. I mean, we did what we could, but honestly. We put my only spare jacket on our prisoner, which hung off of her, and did our best to make it look like we were just three oddballs out from an early night of heavy drinking. Of course, since we were carrying her weight entirely, and since I could barely carry my own weight at this point, we definitely looked like we'd had a few pints as we stumbled along. The heavy bag Nynsi was still struggling with, now with the added bonus of the dead attacker's weapons and omni-tools, was another bit of fun to compensate for.

Getting into the car was another fun adventure, and I had to stay awake and alert enough to keep my gun on the Asari the entire way from the River District to Khar'shan Minor. I don't really remember much of the trip, just the face and bruised neck of our guest, and furiously focusing on the feel of my gun in my hand and the importance of watching her. I was pretty sure that Nynsi called ahead to let everyone know what happened, but the conversation itself escaped me.

"We're here Cieran." Nynsi spoke quietly as we glided into the garage, bringing me back to reality with a snap.

"Oh..." My head whipped around as I blearily tried to focus on something that wasn't the prisoner, or my gun. "I wasn't sleeping was I?"

"Not quite... merely lost behind your eyes." The Batarian metaphor went completely over my head, but I nodded anyways as she continued. "Is your chest feeling any better? Do you need painkillers?"

I'd turned her down when she'd offered the first time. The last thing I needed right now was something that would impair my judgment further than whatever the combination of exhaustion, a shotgun round to the chest, and an Asari vanguard slamming into me had managed. "Not yet, let's talk to Xerol and Trena, I'll take some before I go to sleep. Think Xerol has already picked out spare bedrooms for us?"

She shrugged slightly, apparently unconcerned as she guided the car into its parking spot, several of our squad already waving and heading towards us. "He's likely already picked one for T'laria. I believe it should be obvious where you are staying."

"What? Oh.." Even as tired as I was, I felt my face flush a little. "I mean, are you sure? This is your uncle's place and-" Anything else I was going to say was cut off when she grabbed me by the armor's neckline and hauled me into a kiss. It wasn't a long one, but it made her point quite succinctly. "...Oh."

Her upper eyes rolled but there was a smile on her face as she opened the door, "Re'hat, we have her in the back. I trust that you have the biotic suppressants and the restraints?"

"I'm not an amateur." He sounded affronted as I opened my own door, practically staggering as I got out. I didn't _have_ to lean on the car, I just put my hand on it because it was a comfortable place to leave it. "The kid took her in hand to hand?"

" _After_ she almost crushed his chest with a charge."

"Not bad for a little human."

I was awake enough to respond, but not enough to be polite. I flipped him off irritably. "Fuck you Re'hat."

Thankfully he just laughed it off, moving around the car so he could clap me on the shoulder hard enough to nearly drive me to the ground. "You've got a quad kid, never thought I'd say that about a human."

"Thanks." I winced as something twinged in my chest, "But if it's all the same, mind telling us where Xerol is so I can down about thirty pain killers and pass the hell out?"

Another barking laugh, but he gestured towards the exit all the same. "He and T'laria are waiting in the guard's conference room. You two are supposed to see him anyway, we'll take care of your new friend. I'll see if the doc can make a house call there."

I blinked then tilted my head deeply to the left in thanks before heading in the direction he'd indicated. Nynsi moved up next to me a moment later, her helmets tucked under an arm. I didn't end up needing her to help me remain standing and moving, but she did gently guide me to the proper doorway inside of the mansion. She helped me remove my own helmet before we went in, carefully setting both of them on a desk next to the doorway.

"By the deep waters, you look like shit ape." Trena was the first one to notice our arrival, her head snapping up from the terminal she and Xerol had been examining. "You all right?"

"I'm fine scales, just bruised and battered." I leaned heavily on a chair, not trusting that if I actually sat down I wouldn't pass out on the spot. "Afraid I'm not used to this kind of thing yet."

"Fuck ape, no one's used to biotic charges hitting them in the chest. You're fucking lucky she didn't collapse your goddess-damned ribcage." She shook her head slowly, "Shaaryak, you said he doesn't have anything broken?"

Nynsi shook her own, "Not that I could tell, but my omni-tool is not setup to scan for humans. And he keeps insisting that he is all right."

"Because I am." Well, I wasn't, but they didn't need to know that. I was pretty sure nothing was broken, and I figured if I was bleeding internally I'd already be dead or passed out. So that meant I was just bruised, battered, and in pain.

Xerol grunted, thumping his cane on the floor, drawing my eyes to him. He looked mildly out of sorts, which probably spoke ill about our current situation. "My personal medic is on her way here, she'll examine you. Before we send you off though, we have problems to discuss. Nynsi was able to provide us only a brief overview."

"Two Asari dressed as I-Sec, definitely not. Turian, Human. Turian had a Blue Suns tat on his neck." I stifled a huge yawn, trying to focus. "Silenced guns on the latter two, human had a syringe of something."

"I brought it." Nynsi interjected quietly, "But I do not know if it was related to our operation."

Trena frowned, "What do you mean?"

"The timing." She spread her hands, "Think about it. They just happened to have two Asari with false I-Sec uniforms, and two actual Blue Suns, not gang members, ready to hit Cieran's apartment within an hour of our operation? Is it not more likely that they were planning on... whatever they were going to do to him happening tonight regardless?"

If they were, then everyone at Forever could be in danger. Well, probably not the group of Maidens, they had just hidden under a booth. And Ghai, Trena, and Nynsi were all here, leaving..."We need to warn Tris then."

"She went with Aethyta as her pilot. Forever is shut down for now, the other employees are on paid vacation." Xerol reassured me with a slight wave of a hand, "Though this remains worrying. It does confirm that the True Sons had video footage from the attack on Forever, and that they at least identified you as a party involved. Their masters-"

"Or partners." Trena interjected.

"...or partners," he allowed, "In the Blue Suns then decided you were enough of a target to abduct or kill. The question is, why?"

"I have no freaking idea." My head shook slightly, "I've barely known anyone here for a quarter of a year."

"That you know of," he pressed. "What if it's something from your past? What if you are known to the Blue Suns-"

"Uncle, please." I blinked, turning as Nynsi gave a long sigh. "You know why they were after him, you are merely grasping for any other explanation because it is painful to think they would go that far."

Trena and I shared a confused glance before she spoke, "All right you two, what don't the ape and I know?"

Nynsi's eyes focused very firmly on the table. "If word got out to the Blue Suns that you and I were, well, _together,_ it might cause some members to attempt something like tonight. If they believed I cared for you enough, they could conceive that abducting you would force my... _cooperation_."

I could only gape as my tired brain tried to put the little clues together, finally completing a bit of the puzzle. Her and Xerol's little comments, glances, cut off sentences.. "Your... parents in the Suns, aren't they?"

She let out a hissing sigh, but nodded once.

Xerol spoke quietly, "My brother... after we were exiled, we traveled to Omega. He met Nynsi's mother there, and they married. She was already a member of the organization, and convinced him to join. But it was not a good life for a child, and when she was born they intrusted me with her care. I brought her here to Illium, but recently they have become... discontented."

"They believe he is no longer a good influence, and that I should join the Blue Suns to be with them." Her voice was scathing, "That I should be _honored_ to be allowed to serve with them, to do whatever they want me to do. I said no. They said that I had no say as my father had made his decision. I told them that I obeyed the Patriarch of our family, and he would never send me to be with them. That was six months ago, we have not spoken since."

"Shortly after, I received a demand that I send her to them, that they had plans for her that would advance the family in the Suns hierarchy." Xerol's cane thumped again as his hands tightened, "I struck their names from the family registry, and so informed the Lords on Khar'shan, who confirmed it. No matter what my brother and his wife accomplish for the Batarian people, they may never rescind their exile now."

"Wait," Trena was rubbing at her temples, "So the two of you aren't actually exiled?"

"I once was, I am no longer. Nynsi, born to the children of exiles, needed only her Patriarch's sponsorship. We are both of the high merchant caste, free to return to the Hegemony should we wish it."

"So.." I spoke slowly, "In addition to the True Sons working with the Blue Suns for reasons unknown, we're adding the personal anger of your brother hating your guts and wanting his daughter for whatever fucked up reason."

"Yes."

"Fucking fantastic..." My head shook slowly as the exhaustion crept closer, I tried to push it aside to focus on the other potential issues. Of which there was only about a fucking million."All right, what else happened? Did you guys make it here all right?"

"Not exactly." My boss winced, "We cleared out of there about three waves ahead of a fucking swarm of True Sons in speeders. They tried to home in on the trucks, might have managed it to if we hadn't shut down the beacons they hid aboard. We lost them in Nos Astra and doubled back."

"Not that it matters." Xerol sighed, "Right now we don't know if Chacksin and his wife are aware of our involvement with the True Sons matter, but the moment their source, whoever it is, reveals it, they will tell their commanders." All of us winced in our ways. "And then we will have difficulties."

_Difficulties... more liked about to get raped by a Krogan._ I fought through another yawn, "So... we can add someone, probably one of your people, who told them that Nynsi and I were close, and where I lived. And we're hoping it's just bad luck that it happened tonight."

Nynsi carefully put one of her hands on mine, "That is what it looks like."

"All right..." I closed my eyes and tried to gather my thoughts. Being put on someone's hit list because I liked a girl added itself to my 'New Experiences in the Mass Effect Universe' box. "If... sorry, _when_ the Blue Suns put two and two together, what are we looking at?"

"I doubt that they will show themselves openly. I-Sec will eventually find the bodies in your apartment, if they have not already, but they will be disavowed, records created to indicate that they were discharged. A fee may be paid to the Eclipse to prevent an escalation.."

Trena picked up on the rest of it for him, "And the fucking True Sons will probably try and push hard into Khar'shan Minor."

"Could we go to the Eclipse?" Nynsi hesitantly asked, "We have the bodies from the warehouse, and the recordings of the fight."

"Which proves what?" Her Uncle shook his head, "Why would Sederis believe us, me in particular? I have never been her friend, and it will be easier to allow Dal'serah or Santiago to string her along with concessions and payments. We have to accept reality, as harsh as it is. Come morning we could already be embroiled in open combat with the True Sons. If we move quickly, I or Aethyta will be able to convince, or pay, Sederis to remain uninvolved."

"Any word from her? What about I-Sec?" It was my turn to ask hesitantly. "I mean, that's what they're around for, right?"

"No, nothing yet. And as for I-Sec... some may wish to help, but my connections come with enemies." He leaned heavily on his cane, "Those who wish to see me aided will be fought by those who would rather the True Suns weaken our enclave enough that their own business interests might make inroads. They could send in their security forces after. Regardless... it would take massive resources for them to commit to removing the True Sons. Local support I may be able to leverage, but nothing of the kind needed to fight openly."

Nynsi winced slightly, "And we are still assuming that all of this is correct, and that my parents are involved at all. If they are not, the situation could be even worse. We will not know for certain until the prisoner regains consciousness and we can interrogate her. If we are wrong.."

"If we're wrong... we've got a spy situation much worse than someone just passing on information about your private life." I shook my head, trying to wrap my head around.. well, _everything_ that was happening. "We need to start eliminating theories, maybe prioritize them on worst case scenarios.."

Trena cut me off with a wave of her hand, and shook her head firmly, "Enough Ape. Enough for tonight. Athame's ass... this shit is too heavy for after midnight and you're already dead on your feet. Go track down your doc and get your asses to bed. Xerol will send a message to the Eclipse, I'll work out security for the next day or so, and we can talk again in the morning after we've all had some fucking sleep. By then our guest will be awake and we can get some answers."

As critical as every minute was, I couldn't disagree. As tired and in pain as I was, it was probably only a matter of time before I said something stupid anyway. All the better to take a quick break for sleep and regroup with a clearer head. Nynsi, far more hesitantly than normal, took me by the elbow and guided me out.

"Oh, good, I just caught you. You stay right there so I can examine you." A tall, like, basketball star sized tall, Asari was striding down the hall. Considering that most Asari topped out at five and a half feet it was exceedingly odd to see one taller than me, but I shook my head a bit and focused on the long white coat festooned with pouches that were apparently being used to identify her as Xerol's retained doctor. "Name is Urrast V'Rae, though with your current condition I won't be insulted if your forget."

"Nynsi can remind me." Her hand tightened slightly, and I turned to frown at her. The expression deepened when she looked away slightly, not meeting my eyes with any of hers.

"Right then, hold still and stand up nice and tall so I can get a good reading." I did so, watching as she pulled out what looked like a heavy panel and ran it slowly over my chest. Her omni-tool chirped every few moments, finally letting out a quiet _ding_ on her third pass. "I don't see anything broken or severely injured... lots of bruising in both your musculature and your bones. Strange, looks like you're missing most of the standard gene therapy treatments your people get these days to improve that."

_Because I was born a century and a half before they were invented._ I settled for shrugging, not really wanting to go into my cover story.

"Right, here's something for the pain, should help loosen things up as well. Come find me tomorrow so I can do a thorough scan and see if I can get you started on some supplements, maybe some vaccinations as well." She pushed a small pouch into one of my hands, "Take them with water, and be sure to get some sleep."

"Thanks..." I said it to her back, her long coat billowing as she rapidly strode away. "She's.. certainly unique."

"Yes." Nynsi shrugged slightly, guiding me in the opposite direction. "I suppose she is. Your room will be this way."

"Right.. wait. My room?." My feet dug in and I stared at her in confusion. "What's wrong?"

"What?" She turned to frown at me, as if that was a stupid question.

My arms crossed my chest, drawing a painful wince that I tried to smother. From the weakening of her expression, I didn't do the best job. "Nynsi..."

"I was.. thinking during the meeting. About us. And.. the Blue Suns. It.. might be better if you stayed elsewhere. Perhaps if we had a falling out in public tomorrow." I was stunned, and even more stunned when my heart wrenched painfully. She rushed on, barely able to look at me as she spoke. "I.. you are in danger, with me. You are already a target, but you are an even larger one if we are.. together. If we.. break, visibly, publicly, it will get back to them and you will be just another human again."

"No." The word was out of my mouth before my brain could really process what she was saying.

"Cieran.. please."

"No." I shook my head, my resolve strengthening a bit as a small smile forced its way onto my face. "We still don't know each other all that well, even though we keep falling asleep in the same bed. Even so, I'm not going to let a pair of mercenaries I've never met tell me I can't see their daughter, assuming they're involved at all. If they come for me, I'll just have to deal with them like we did the idiots at my apartment. If they try and come for you.. then I guess I'll have to apologize to you and Xerol after I shoot them a few times for trying to make you do something you don't want to do."

Her four eyes blinked rapidly, and her mouth worked as she tried to regroup and reinforce her point. If I let her think through things, she'd probably still do it.. and I was honestly surprised by how much I didn't want that to happen. Batarian or not, near-attempted murder or not... I still liked her. She had class, in her own aristocratic way, I found her attractive, and her scathing wit was highly amusing when she let it out to play. And we'd had.. fun together so far.

I took a few slowly steps until I stood beside her, and casually offered her my arm, tilting my head to the left, "May I escort your to your room, Miss Shaaryak?"

One of her hands hesitantly slid through the crook of my arm."You.. really are stupidly noble sometimes. You know this, yes?"

"There is one Batarian lady, a highborn one, who keeps saying such things." I shrugged as best I could, setting a slow pace down the hallway. "But I have learned to accept such commentary when it comes from beautiful women."

Her lips brushed my cheek, bringing a slight flush to them as her arm gently disengaged from my own before wrapping slowly around my waist. I reciprocated, sighing softly as we moved together. The mansion was quiet, and we didn't run into anyone else before we reached the wood paneled doors that led to her chambers.

There, we met a Batarian dressed in what I thought was servant's clothing, holding up a glass of water. I made sure to tilt my head barely to the right when he dipped his to the left, and murmured a quiet thanks as I downed it with the pain meds. Once that was over with and he was sent on his way, I made sure to open the doors before she could, bowing slightly despite the pain.

She entered before me, letting me close the doors before guiding me through the room. It was hard to tell through the limited lighting, the window's curtains were dark and drawn closed, but it seemed like a quaint enough little living room. A couch, some chairs, probably a screen on the wall... I idly wondered if the furniture was more expensive than comfortable, .like those damned chairs had been.

I started to head towards the couch, only to be firmly tugged along towards the open doors leading to her bedroom. "If you think I am letting you sleep out here after that little speech, you are sorely incorrect."

I felt myself blushing, again. Dammit. "Nynsi.."

"Cieran," she turned in the doorway and brought a hand up to touch my cheek, her thumb running through my goatee and across my lips, "Relax. You are injured and need to rest, I am not about to take advantage of you while you are drugged. Now, normally I would demand you shower before even touching my bed, but tonight I believe, I shall allow the exception."

"Thank you." I murmured, not quite sure what I was thanking her for.

She helped me get out of the armor, her voice comforting me softly each time a new movement drew a hiss of pain. We tossed it at the foot of her bed, not bothering to keep it organized. Eventually I was left only in my undershirt and shorts, and I let out a slow grunt as she carefully peeled my shirt up. There as a brief fight in my head over the temptation to look down, which I lost rather quickly.

"Athame's.. fuck." My chest was a mess of dark purple bruising, and I felt myself questioning the doctor. It was hard to believe that I hadn't managed to break anything important when most of my torso looked more like crushed velvet than human skin. _Shit.. here I was worrying that I was being weak or something. How the hell did my sternum or my ribs not break? Or anything? Fuck.. that thin armor must have been the only thing that stopped me from getting killed_ either _time.._

"Lay down Cieran. I will be there in a moment."

I took her advice, slowly crawling into her bed... and oh my god. I liked the bed at my apartment, it was comfortable, relatively bouncy.. it was a bed. This.. I could have been laying on a freaking cloud with angels singing in chorus. It was _that_ freaking comfortable. "Oh wow..."

There was a chuckle from where she was removing her own gear, "I see there are some things of class you are capable of enjoying."

"I'll enjoy it better once you're here." As so often happened when I was tired my mouth got ahead of the rest of me, and the flirtatious comment was out before my brain could throttle it. I felt my skin burning again as her form froze in place for a long moment before slowly resuming her actions.

"Will you now?" Her own voice had deepened slightly, becoming huskier, "I had thought you were too injured for such things... regrettably you probably are." I watched as she slid around the other end of the bed, the low light treating me yet again to the view of her in shorts and a slim shirt. She practically glided into bed, pulling a few of the blankets up to our necks.

I drifted off almost at once, smiling slightly as her warm breath tickled my neck, and her body pressed pleasantly against my side. And for those few moments before the darkness took me.. I was able to forget about everything that would be waiting for us when we woke up.

* * *

**End Act 1: The Beginning**

**Date: 7-19-2180 (** Three Months, Nineteen Days since Arrival **)**

**Next up is Act 2: The Siege; Chapter 1 - The Velocity**

* * *

**Random**   **Facts from the Author:**

_The Blue Suns: Originally, the Eclipse was supposed to be the primary enemy, rather than the Blue Suns. I changed that during my large scale adjustments when I realized that the Blue Suns simply made for a better story and gave room for more.. complexity._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is a bit shorter, but the events of the next day really kick off the act so to speak, so I cut it there. Not a bad bit of work for three months in the ME universe, although things have definitely gone from merely complicated to.. well, extremely complicated and deadly.
> 
> Here, we do finally get a bit of back-story from Nynsi and Xerol, and have a possible explanation as to the limited attack on Cieran, but it sounds like something big is about to start. I did make a minor change, the initial chapter or two of the next act will keep up with the quick pacing before a few time skips come into play, that way I can do a better job on the initial stages of what's happening rather than resorting to summaries.
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	13. The Velocity

_I don't own Mass Effect, nor will I profit from this story._

* * *

**_Act 2: The Siege_ **

_**Date:** _ _**7-20-2180 (Three Months, Twenty Days since Arrival)** _

* * *

**Act II: Chapter 1: The Velocity**

The next morning, I watched a tired looking Xerol slowly pacing in front of our prisoner, his can striking the floor hard with each step. The Asari Vanguard had been bound tightly to a chair with cuffs whose origins I'd left to my imagination, and there was a thick collar around her neck that apparently served to disrupt her natural biotics. According to Trena, it would pulse low level electric shocks into her the moment it detected an element zero reaction, disrupting any attempt to form a dark energy field. Her mouth had twisted with familiar loathing as she'd told me about them, and I'd quickly changed the topic.

_Finding out about Nynsi's parents is enough of a revelation for now. I've got the feeling that whatever happened to you in the past, and-or between you and the Matriarch.. I am much happier not knowing about the details._

We had set her up in one of the other conference rooms, one with a window. We'd made sure to have her chair setup so that she couldn't turn properly to see myself, Trena, Nynsi, Re'hat, and Marn all observing what was happening. Well, only two of us could really see through the small opening, and by mutual understanding I was going to watch the entire process. After all, I'd been the one targeted for abduction or death. Or more likely abduction, followed by death later. The others sat or paced, occasionally murmuring to each other. He'd assured us that the room was soundproofed, but advised us not to shout all the same. He'd also setup a small vid screen broadcasting from his omni-tool so that we could see her expression as they spoke, the view shifting as he moved.

"Now." Xerol spoke calmly, his voice carrying across the intercom built into the wall.  _A ready made interrogation room in his own mansion.. yet another thing best not thought long on._  "You have a few options. The most pleasant of which is to simply tell us everything you know."

"And be killed by my employer?" the Asari snorted, a mild sneer on her already unlovely features. "No thanks."

He nodded slowly, "Then I will see you in three days, I am lead to believe you can survive that long without attention."

The sneer flickered, "Wait.. what?"

"Were my words incorrect? You seem to be an intelligent woman. Torture through pain is rarely effective, so I must rely on more reliable methods. Regrettably they will take time." And our host  _did_  look honestly regretful. "It is not a pleasant thing to watch a being starve and thirst, unable to sleep or move, forced to sit in their own refuse.. but our questions must be answered."

Her face had tightened at each word of what would be happening to her. "Wait.. you can't.. there are laws! I'm a lawfully employed mercenary!"

"You will find that such things do not help you here. Now.. shall we talk, or shall I see you in three days?" All four of his eyes fixed on her face. "I am told that your people do not handle the dehydration process very well. Perhaps I will leave a pitcher of water on this table, just beyond your reach so that you will be reminded of what you will receive for cooperating?"

_Standard interrogation technique.. first describe what you're willing to do, even if you don't actually intend on doing any of it. Of course, he very much would leave her in there for that long.. the threat to leave the water in front of her is a nice touch though._

"I.. you'll let me go, if I tell you right?" Re'hat snorted, and I was hard pressed not to as well. For her competent exterior, a hardened mercenary this apparently was not. He hadn't even had to bother going into detail about what would happen  _after_  the several days of malnourishment and dehydration. Which I was a bit thankful for really.. and even more thankful that it didn't like it would get to that point. Killing people trying to kill me, or who definitely deserved it, was one thing. Torturing someone.. I was mildly relieved to find that still made me very uncomfortable.  _Congratulations.. Illium hasn't quite demolished your sense of right and wrong, as hard as it seems to be trying sometimes._

"That will depend on how well your answers compare to what we learn." Xerol wrapped both hands around his cane, leaning heavily on it as he continued to regard her. "Are you a member of the Blue Suns?"

"Yes.. they hired me last week, said if I did well enough on this job they'd bring me on full time." she shifted slightly, as nervous about talking as she had been about  _not_ talking, but apparently unable to stop herself now that she'd start. "I mean, I didn't have many options. I didn't want to join the Eclipse and I've been.. a bit in debt lately. They were offering me two thousand up front, with another two thousand after we delivered the human."

"Delivered him to whom? Who hired you?"

"The Turian guy. Name was Yarrath.. Yarrath something, I don't think he ever said his last name. We were supposed to grab the human for his bosses, said he'd been hanging around with someone they needed." her head turned, tracking Xerol as he started pacing again, "They gave me and Relta the fake uniforms, said to back them up. They had the drugs, were going to knock him out and take him to their safe-house. After that we'd get paid and our part would be done."

Xerol was silent for a long moment, "I am not hearing anything of note besides the name of a dead Turian."

"Ah.. ok.. just.. Relta might have listened in on them all right? She was thinking of ratting them out to the Eclipse afterwords, wanted me to help. I.. said yes." She gulped audibly, "It was something about fucking with Sederis, about unbalancing her. They were pissed.. uh.. I'm trying to remember what she said they said... oh, right. 'Why do we have to pick up a human for a pair of suck-ups instead of helping with the shipments to the corps.'"

"Shipments?"

"I don't know what they were talking about, just that it didn't sound good. Relta thought that they were shipping in weapons or something, but I told her that was stupid. I mean, not even the Blue Suns would want to fight the Eclipse here on Illium right?"

 _Shipments to the corps.. corps.. corporations.. what corporations. What are they shipping... wait... don't assume it's being shipped in one go, they have puppets already in place. Move it from the Blue Suns to the True Sons. Then from the gang to the corporations and you get.._ The light bulb went off in my head, "Motherfucking son of a.. Athame's sacred ass!" Everyone else turned to stare at me in various degrees of shock and confusion as I violently rubbed the bridge of my nose with one hand, slapping the intercom bringing us the interrogation off with the other."It's fucking blackmail."

Trena's mouth snapped shut as she worked through the thought process on her own, there was nothing wrong with her mind after all, even with how often it was in the gutter. It took her just a handful of moments, then she started swearing too. Far more colorfully and at length than I had, but that was normal for her.

"What are you two on about?" Re'hat growled, tossing a glance through the window then another at the screen as though there was a visual cue that the two of us had caught.

I waved a hand impatiently. "Selling slaves into indentured servitude is illegal on Illium, it's one of the few things that is. So the Blue Suns set up a racket. They bring in the slaves, the True Sons dress them up, sell them to corporations, specifically ones that are tied to the Eclipse. But they don't  _tell_ the buyers that they're slaves. They probably have a facility somewhere where they feed them and medicate them up a bit before putting them on the market as it were. And no one would believe them if they said they're slaves anyway, they'd just think they're trying to get out of the contract."

"That bitch wasn't there to fill out the contracts to sign them over to a buyer," Trena growled, "She was filling out contracts that said they were all owned by the True Sons. As a legal merc unit, they'd be allowed to own servants."

"Right." I nodded, "And what would happen if a group of the Eclipse's suppliers were suddenly exposed as having bought slaves from a group the Eclipse openly boycotts?"

Nynsi spoke quietly, "Chaos. I-Sec would move against them.. they would have no choice, the Council would come down hard on the Republic if they did not. If the right companies were targeted, Sederis would equally have no choice but to defend them. Or, given her unstable nature, she might even defend some but attack others. It would be chaos. The perfect time for the Blue Suns to move in and offer a..  _stable_  alternative."

"By the pillars.. we stepped in some deep shit didn't we." Marn growled in her gravel tones, her head shaking slowly. "They're trying to start a fucking war. And this crap with your parents is just sand over our feet."

I made a mental note to look up common Asari and Batarian sayings, because there was another one that made no sense at all. And I wasn't even sure what species it came from.

"They were probably involved as it was," Nynsi shrugged slightly, "Perhaps we will be lucky and they will continue to waste people trying."

"Fine then," the other woman wasn't about to give up, "But what the hell do we do about this shit?"

_I have no fucking idea._

Thankfully, Trena apparently did. "We fucking survive that's what. Then we find the damn evidence to prove that this is what's happening, and we give it to Sederis. Then we let her and her band of merry bloody maniacs clean out these assholes."

"And how do we do that? Find a Blue Sun captain and ask them to spill their guts out?"

"We could always actually spill their guts out," Re'hat seemed amused by the argument, "And only put them back in if they talk."

_And there's an image I could have done without._

"Enough, all right, both of you." Trena rubbed at her forehead, making the dark rings under her eyes come into focus. "Re'hat, you're supposed to be out there getting word out to Xerol's people. Marn, make sure you're guys are on patrol around the perimeter. How's the arm?"

The bulky Batarian woman shrugged, "I can pull a trigger. Don't worry T'laria, the gang won't come busting down our door without us killing 'em first."

"Damn straight. Get your asses out of here."

Marn strode out, but Re'hat paused at the doorway, "Only if you get your ass to bed. Ghai's starting to worry about you T'laria, and she don't worry easy." He gave us all a little nod after speaking, then left.

I frowned and looked closer at the first friend I'd made on this planet. The lighting was low in the room, I'd thought to help keep the attention off the window from the other side. But Trena had been the first one in here.. "You didn't sleep at all scales."

"By the goddess.. I'm fine Ape."

"No, you're not." I shot back. "Why the fuck didn't you sleep?"

"There's too much crap to do all right?" Her own tone became annoyed, "Between waiting for that bitch to wake up, getting word out to Xerol's people that the True Sons might start trying to launch raids at any moment, and trying to work out what the hell we're going to do I haven't had the time. Forget praying to Athame that Aethyta might actually respond to our goddess damned messages."

"You made sure that Nyn and I got time to sleep, even gave me some crap about it being too late for that kind of shit." My arms crossed irritably, not noticing Nynsi start at my shortening of her name. "We can work with Xerol on the rest of this, you get your ass to bed. Or do I need to track down Ghai and have her drag you there and lock you in a stasis?"

Her teeth ground on one another. "You wouldn't dare."

"We would." We both turned to regard Nynsi with varying degrees of surprise. "I do not quite care for you T'laria, but Matriarch Aethyta and my uncle trust you to lead our teams. You cannot do that well if you are about to fall over." Her omni-tool flashed to life, "Ghai, please come to the observation room on the western conference hall."

"You.." Biotic light grew briefly around Trena before flickering out in an unstable little burst of color. "Dammit."

"They are right old friend." I turned as Xerol slowly entered the room. Blinking, I cast a quick glance through the window, seeing our prisoner still seated, but apparently alive. He sounded as exhausted as Trena was, and Nynsi actually moved over to take him by an elbow as he slowly entered our room. "We are not as young as we once were."

"Speak for yourself." the mutter was low, but there wasn't any heat in it. "We miss anything after the comment about shipments?"

He shook his head as Nynsi helped him sit. "Nothing of real note. We can keep or dispose of her as we see fit, I do not believe she has any other information."

"Keep her until I-Sec finds me here, turn her over to them with a copy of what she said." I offered, frowning at seeing how heavily he had leaned on his cane. Either he wasn't as young as I thought he was, or he'd had a lot of injuries in his past. Or both. "Could lay the groundwork for anything we find later."

Trena nodded slowly, "All right, we'll go with that, ape. Xerol, you're not going to like what we think is happening."

From there, the three of us laid out what we'd come up with. His already tired form had slumped more as we'd gone on, even with his niece resting a hand on his shoulder supportively. Ghai emerged into the room part way through, and we almost started over again before she simply waved for us to keep going. I didn't doubt she'd either fill in the blanks on her own, or just wait for Trena to rant about it later.

"This is worse than I thought." his cane turned very slowly in his hands. "If we do not handle this delicately, it could end very badly for my people. I need to sleep on this. We both do, dear Trena."

Trena looked like she was still set on disagreeing, only to shut her mouth when Ghai firmly grabbed her by the shoulder. My foul mouthed bossed practically shrank under the silent commando's glare, eventually averting her eyes and nodding dejectedly.

"You have to teach me how to do that." I stared at her in abject wonder. "I've never seen her just give in like that."

Trena mumbled something, but Ghai merely gave me a small smile and a wink before hauling her up.

"You two asses stay busy all right?" Trena turned, talking over Ghai's shoulder as the latter led her out, "Ape, your armor. Shaaryak, monitor your uncle's people. If the True Sons hit us wake us the fuck up, an hour from now or not."

Nynsi nodded, and I sketched an abbreviated salute as the unlikely pair left.

"Uncle, do you need help getting back to your room?"

Xerol barked a laugh, reaching up to pat her hand gently. "I will be fine girl. But leave the nobility to your human, it suits him better."

Her skin flushed to a dark maroon, and her voice became a bit waspish. "I will call the servants to take you to your chambers then, and I will make sure that they understand you are not to be allowed up until dinner."

Another chuckle, "There you are, that is the same tone your grandmother would use. Much more appropriate for the lady of the house dealing with someone old enough to know better. Run along you two, I assure you I will still be living when it comes time for our evening meal."

Nynsi let out a huff of annoyance, paused barely long enough to wrap one of her arms around mine, before striding determinedly out. I was thankful that I was as tall as she was, because her long legs were stretching out as she practically bulled her way down the hall.

"Nynsi.." I offered hesitantly when I realized I had no idea where we were in the house anymore. "..Where are we going?"

She jerked to a stop, nearly making me stumble, and regarded me as though she'd forgotten I was even there. "Cieran.. oh." she flushed slightly again, "I'm sorry, I was just.. annoyed, I suppose. I do  _not_  like being compared to my grandmother."

"Ah." I tried to nod as though that made perfect sense. My own grandmother had been a kind old lady who often plied me with mounds of ice cream. Heaven help you if she actually cooked though.. even years later I could still taste the cookies that she'd managed to make taste like fish. "You didn't care for her?"

"No." The word was practically a snarl. "And I only knew her briefly before she died. I should not speak ill of the dead, but I still cannot help but hope that the pillars crushed rather than supported her."

"Ok then.."  _So, less 'I didn't like her' to 'Years after her death and I still hope she's burning in hell'._ "Did you want to go get some tea or something to help cool off a bit?"

She let out a long breath, all of her eyes closing as she apparently tried to focus. "No.. no. I'm all right."

"No you're not. You look ready to spit nails."

"Spit... your human expressions make little sense."

I shrugged, a small smile tugging at my lips. "They make sense to me. Yours make even less sense than the Asari's do."

"Well, we shall have to work on that. After all, you must be presentable while you live here."

My eyes widened as though I was in shock, and I made a show of dropping my gaze to regard my battered Talonfists shirt and beat up work pants. Beat up or not, they had about a million pockets, and they were comfortable, and that was the most important part. Still, it didn't exactly go with her obviously tailored pants or form fitting shirt. Even the few servants and guards we'd passed had been much better dressed than I was. "I'll get right on that."

A fist hit my shoulder gently, "You.. why do I put up with you?"

"I honestly have no idea sometimes." I admitted, a bit of seriousness creeping into my voice.

"Oh.." her lower eyes dropped their gaze slightly, though her upper set remained on mine. "I suppose I did promise an explanation once we were safely here. Perhaps we should head to the garage so that you can work. I can link into my uncle's network from the terminals there, and we can.. talk while you work."

"All right." I let out a long sigh, not quite sure what to feel about the upcoming conversation. "You know you don't have to explain anything to me if you don't want to."

Her ivory teeth bit her lower lip as we started walking, "No.. but there are questions I have for you as well."

_Yeah.. odds on this getting awkward just went from possible to guaranteed._

"Shoot."

"Please continue." she corrected primly, drawing a tiny smile to both of us before the seriousness returned. "You have.. commented on my appearance, positively so, quite often lately."

I frowned but nodded, "Of course I have.. should I not be?"

"Only if you mean it."

"Why would I not?"

All of her eyes narrowed. "Cieran.. I am hardly your people's ideal of beauty. I did research the day you were at the shop, working on that armor, on what human's consider attractive. My waist is hardly thin, I have no hair, my bust is small enough by my own people's standards, much less yours. And that is all disregarding my..facial structure. So I am curious as to what you believe could make me someone you would.. find desirable."

That was all technically true of course. From what I'd heard around, she was the Batarian equivalent of a knock-out, but I doubted most humans would have even looked twice. Personally I was sure that was just because of the inherent conflict between our species. After all, her hips were very.. impressive, and the glimpses I'd had of her toned stomach beneath her nightwear had done quite a bit for me. Of course, actually saying that proved harder for me than thinking about it.

"Would you like a list, or can I just show you?"

"Show me? Nnn!" I didn't give her the chance to actually say no, instead stopping in place and spinning her with one hand, my arm around her waist tightening. This kiss wasn't as.. slow as the others. There was a point to prove, after all. She let out a quiet growl as my lips pressed against hers, her taste slowly filling my mouth as she began to respond hungrily. Her chest, small or not, was extremely noticeable as she tried to press even closer, drawing quiet noises from my own throat.

I broke off reluctantly after perhaps half a minute, though it felt like longer, reminding myself very firmly that we were standing in a hallway, and that it was probably  _still_ a bad idea to go.. all the way with her. Well, my brain was saying that. Other parts of me were very firm in pointing out that it had been a very, very long time since I'd been with a woman, human or alien, and that she seemed very willing. But for now at least, I was able to browbeat the caveman in my head with logic, and kept most of my wits about me.

Her upper eyes were still closed as I pulled back, though her lower ones opened lazily, a sultry grin slowly appearing. "I see..  _and_ feel."

My face flushed slightly at the last, and my voice came out lower than I'd hoped. "So.. believe that I find you desirable now?"

"Perhaps." She leaned in slightly, her lips brushing just barely against mine before pulling back. "I may need to be reminded later."

"As you desire Miss Shaaryak."

"As I do indeed." Almost reluctantly it seemed, she pulled away, letting out a long breath before shaking herself. "But I do believe you had questions for me as well."

"I did." It took me a few more moments to clear my head enough to remember them. "Mine is.. well, basically the same. I'm a human with three months of.. life, I guess, to go on, and you're a high society Batarian merchant princess."

She regarded me for a long moment, "So.. why would someone like me even bother with someone like you?"

My shoulders rose and fell, "Something like that, yeah."

Her eyes frowned in concentration, then she turned slightly and walked to one of the massive windows providing a distant view of Nos Astra proper. "You remember the day we met, of course."

"Hard to forget." I moved slowly until I was next to her, though where she stood tall I slouched against the wall beside the glass pane. "What with the dancing and you trying to provoke me into doing something that would get me killed."

"Yes.. that." she flushed a bit again, "But you did not, did you? Even out here, we Batarians are all told about your kind. How you're vain, greedy, ambitious, and cutthroat above everything else. The few other humans I had met did.. little to dispel that image. But you, you danced with me."

"Poorly."

"Quite poorly, another thing we must fix." A hand rose, her fingers slowly drumming on the windowsill, "I did not suspect for a moment that you would  _not_  strike me or desert me, do something untoward. But when you did not.. I was intrigued despite myself. And when we spent the day together.. you truly did treat me as if I were just anyone else who had insulted you and put you in such a position. You did not care about my status, or my species."

My lips twitched, "So it's like I've said.. you want to go out with me because I treat you like I'd treat anyone else?"

"More than that. You really are.. noble, I suppose. It is.. rare to see such a thing on Illium, and from a human no less." Her eyes tracked downwards slightly. "I enjoy the idea of a Harath'krem, a noble warrior, who would stand by me."

I blushed slightly, a hand reaching out to brush against her arm. "Nyn.. I'm hardly a noble knight come here to save you. I barely even know what's going on around here most of the time."

"Have you allowed that to stop you?" she challenged back, "I do not see you cowering in a corner somewhere. I  _saw_  the anger in your eyes when we were at the warehouse. If there had been any survivors left you would have killed them, not because of bloodthirstiness or because someone was paying you, but because you would have felt that they did not  _deserve_  to live after what they had done."

"I.." my mouth went a bit dry, but I couldn't really deny it.

Her hands gently took mine as she turned to look at me. "I am.. jaded, I believe the term is. Slavery, suffering.. I have seen worse, as I said. Bu you.. have not, and I do not want to see you become as jaded as I am. I want you to remain as you are now, and I will do what you cannot so that you may."

"Nyn.." my head shook slightly as her hands squeezed, and I tried to find the right words. Here she was, knowing me for a few weeks, already saying that she would.. well,  _protect_  me against the general shit that we found ourselves in. All so that I could not become as jaded, bitter, and tired as Trena, or Xerol.. or herself.

 _Being "noble" and "good" won't save you when the reapers come. Shepard might have stayed a paragon in your games.. but at the end of the day, those were just games, and you are not Commander Shepard. You're Cieran Kean, traveler form another dimension, about to get stuck into a gang war. Just because a pretty, strong girl wants to help you doesn't mean that it's a good idea. Sooner or later, either you'd have to tell her the truth, and who knows what the fuck would happen then, or you'd have to find somewhere safe for her.. and there won't be any._ "I can't ask you to do that. I mean, we might not even work together. And.. I'm glad you think that I'm a good person, but I'm really no-mmph!"

In what was becoming a habit of ours, she'd elected to shut me up before I could continue. I was pointedly reminded of how much stronger Batarians were, on the average, than most humans when she simply picked me up by the shirt and shoved me hard against the wall, her lips never leaving mine. It was an entirely new experience to be manhandled like that, but I found myself not really minding as her tongue ran slowly across my lips before she pulled back slightly.

"No, Cieran. I am not giving you a choice in this." I swallowed heavily as her lips touched mine as she spoke, "You are simply thinking too much, instead of allowing this to happen. If you did not believe that we had a chance together, you would have stopped me a long time ago."

"That's.." The groan was unavoidable as she pressed herself against me harder, her grin growing even more sultry at the sound. "..probably..true.."

"Good." Her face turned slightly, her cheek brushing through my goatee, "Now.. as much as I would like to take you to my chambers, regrettably, we have places to be and work to do."

 _Regrettably.._ I shook myself slightly as she gently let me go, breathing heavily as I tried to get a handle on my emotions and hormones, both of which were clamoring for my attention. The part of me I'd managed to beat down earlier had apparently pulled a lazarus, because it was screaming at me to forget our jobs, forget the fact that our lives could be in danger at any moment, and just drag her to her bed. Another part of me, the one that had been against it all in the first place, was horrified at how complicated things were becoming.

The rest of me.. just wrapped my arms around her and held her tightly as we both waited for our breathing to become calm and steady.

Eventually we shifted, I carefully adjusted one arm around her waist, allowing her to guide us back to the part of the mansion I was more familiar with, not saying a word as we moved. We spend the remainder of the day in the garage working on our assigned tasks. I'll admit to watching her a bit more than I should have as I did, and catching her occasionally eyeing me as well, but by and large we managed to be professional over the course of the day.

_Of course, that's probably just because she's waiting for after dinner before she attacks you._

I unpacked the bulky exoskeleton from the cargo crate they'd moved it in, and hopped in to run some more test situations. Thankfully Nynsi was able to track down one of the local mechanics, another Batarian named Ullik. He'd been obviously uncertain about working with a human, but by the end of the second hour had relaxed enough to trade jibes with me as we worked. Getting another set of pain relievers after lunch had helped a bit with that, as he'd asked why I'd needed them, and gotten the story from Nynsi, who somehow managed to spin it as if I'd been nobly protecting her the entire time.

Me, having learned my lesson, just let her tell it however she wanted to.

"You need an extra set of eyes, there isn't anything wrong with the view-screens." he grumbled after I'd had him adjust the HUD yet again. We had finished the basic motor controls, and I was trying t get the helmet plating into place. Which meant I needed the HUD properly setup so that I could actually see where I was going. I'd played enough games involving armor like this to know better; I wasn't about to have a huge glass space around my head that told everyone to 'Aim right here morons!'. The helmet wasn't separate, instead I'd fused it straight into the back plate, turning it basically into an armored box around my skull. Since the chest plate lifted out for ingress and egress, it wasn't really as much of a problem as it could have been. Made things a little more awkward, but that was an issue I'd have to accept.

"Seriously, I can't just add a second pair of eyes. Lower panels one and three by a half inch. Panels two, four, and five are all fine."

"Fine. How's that?"

I nodded slowly as the images flickered then adjusted themselves. "Nice work.. you've got a talent for this kind of thing, don't you?"

He preened slightly, obviously pleased to be complimented in front of his boss's niece. "I handle most of the displays for the car fleet."

"Nice. Always hated display work myself, I prefer honest coding."

"There's an artistry to it." he agreed, pointedly emphasizing the quality, and features, that I lacked. "You have to have the eyes for it."

I snorted, swinging both arms in loose stretches, watching as the built in cameras perfectly captured the movement. The main screen was setup for a two seventy degree view, with the panel on the top left showing the remaining coverage behind me. Below it was a basic wireframe of the exoskeleton, each motor flashing in place as it activated, glowing green to show there weren't any issues. Opposite that was the blank panels for my sensors and whatever weapon I ended up carrying.

Nynsi, seated at a desk with a half a dozen screens in front of her, shook her head. "I still believe you should consider a Lich."

"I, unlike you, am not made of money." I pointed out. "I'll take cheap and reliable if you please."

Her upper eyes rolled before she returned her attention to the reports coming in from Xerol's people. She had a few contacts keeping tabs on known True Son agents and gathering spots, and there were more casually patrolling the streets of Khar'shan Minor. So far they hadn't reported in anything entirely unusual, but a few had reported rumors that most of the upper crust of the gang had all up and vanished to some high level conference. She'd told them all to stay on their toes, and was rotating the guards around the mansion itself every few hours to make sure they were rested.

"You going with traditional guns or you going to mount them in place?" my new assistant leaned against the cargo container. "The latest Asari model as Acolytes built right into the wrists. Rumor is that Hegemony's experimenting with an LMG instead of a hand actuator on a few prototypes."

"Maybe the former, but that's supposed to be a complicated bit of engineering." I held up a hand, regarding the box shell of armor around my forearm terminating in a metal hand. "I'd rather have both hands available. I mean, if I've got a gun instead of my right hand, how do I do something like open doors if my left arm gets shot to pieces? I still need to work out an adapter to get my omni-tool to link into the armor while I'm in it as is."

He shrugged, "Not my specialty as it is, personally I'm amazed you got that thing working at all."

"Yeah, well, it's nowhere near ready yet." I banged a forearm onto chest, "Barriers are up but not tested, still need my omni-tool linked, need a sensor suite installed, a set of medigel dispensers.. fuck, the list never ends. Way more to do before I worry about mounting guns directly into it."

I popped the chest plate, awkwardly ducking my head before starting the laborious process of pulling my arms and the rest of my body out. "Tomorrow it's going to be guns though. Nynsi, you said there is a Visage I could use?"

She nodded without glancing over, "In the armory. Ghai should not have any problems allowing you to use it, she prefers her pistols in any case. I am not even sure why she has it to be honest, it just collects dust."

"Sounds like a plan to me." My body twisted as I stretched, glad to be out of the armored shell I'd been stuck in for most of the day. "Good working with Ullik."

His eyes blinked in rapid sequence, but he nodded all the same. "Strange to hear that from a human, but I suppose you're different than most of them."

"I would hope so."

He gave a loud snort before inclining his head a bit to the left, which I replicated to my right, which drew another surprised sent of blinking. "Huh.. A human knowing proper manners on top of that. Something to think about I suppose." The mechanic turned away, picking up his tools as he finished up for the day.

I chuckled at the honest confusion in his voice before heading over to join Nynsi. "Well, my day was productive. How was yours?"

"I have been monitoring traffic and juggling schedules for the guard teams." Her upper eyes glanced up at me in exasperation. "How do you believe it was?"

"Boring? Below your station? Tiring?" I put my hands on her shoulders, careful about how I rubbed them. Batarian musculature was different enough that I didn't want to risk hurting her by accident, "All of the above I suppose."

"Correct. Let me find someone to take my place and then we can head to the dining hall.." her voice trailed off uncertainly, a hand rising to touch her earpiece. "Ora, what did you say? You see  _what?_ How many... what direction? East? Northeast, confirmed. Only that group? Anyone else seeing movement like this?"

I froze, my hands careful to stay right where they were as I strained to listen. Stupid, I know, considering there was no chance to hear whatever was coming across her earpiece.

"Understood.. get yourself out of there, I will tell my Uncle right away." Her fingers flew across the glowing panels, "This is Nynsi, I want everyone in the field to route their messages to Re'hat. Re'hat, send out word to the other team leads, tell them to expect company. Marn, put the mansion into lock-down."

_Fuck._

I waited impatiently until she signed off, jerkily tearing off her gloves, "What's happening?"

"They are on the move." She was up and moving within a moment, "Word just went out to the gang to get ready for a turf war, their leaders just came back onto the grid to send it. A few seem to be more eager to get started than the rest."

"How many?"

"Perhaps twice as many as we saw at the warehouse." she shrugged slightly, lips pulling back into a tight grin. "Not nearly enough to even worry us. Come, we have to wake up my uncle and Trena, I would not wish it be said that the Shaaryak family did not know how to greet unwelcome guests."

* * *

**Next up is Chapter 2: The Opening**

* * *

**Random**   **Facts from the Author:**

" _If I know Grunt, your answer's coming at muzzle velocity_ _." ~ Cmdr Shepard_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, this act starts off a little slow before ending in a cliff hanger, expect plenty of action in the following chapters as things get rolling.
> 
> Here, we see the initial interrogation. It doesn't reveal all that much, but it does seem to provide some answers if you can follow the logic. Of course, that means that Cieran and his group are in quite a bit over their heads, even compared to what they might have thought beforehand. Clinging, bitter parents? Not a real threat compared to potentially upsetting the blue suns long term plans that could pose a lot of problems for Illium.
> 
> After that we get a bit into the still developing relationship between Cieran and Nynsi, where part of him is still unsure of the situation, but it doesn't seem like she's going to give him much choice in the matter. Follow that up with a bit of work on the armor, and the first moves in the new engagement are seen, to be resolved next chapter.
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	14. The Opening

_I don't own Mass Effect, nor will I profit from this story._

* * *

**Act II: Chapter 2: The Opening**

Twenty minutes later the pair of us had grabbed our armor and weapons, and headed to the conference room to join Xerol, Trena, Ghai, and Marn. They'd all tossed their armor on as well, though Ghai was still buckling hers when we entered. A few quiet greetings later, Nynsi settled in at her seat before laying out what was happening.

"At least two bosses in the True Sons have decided that the best method of persecuting this dispute is to remove us at once. We can expect them in an hour." Her fingers flew across the terminal built into the table, bringing up a three dimensional map of Khar'shan minor and the surrounding districts. "From what our people could see and hear, they intend to come straight here to kill you personally Uncle. I do not doubt that they believe it would grant them favors should they do so."

Xerol, still looking tired but seemed far more alive than he had been this morning, chuckled from his spot at the head of the table. "They would quite likely be correct. How many can we expect?"

"As many as one hundred." A new image appeared, highlighting several major travel lanes. "Ora is reporting that they are traveling mostly by truck this time, rather to be expected after we put such a dent into their skycar fleet."

Marn swore quietly, "Where the hell are these assholes are coming from? We killed more than fifty of them, figured that would've slapped them down for a while."

"That," Xerol admitted, "Is another question to which I would like an answer. I find it hard to believe that there are that many disaffected youths in the lower districts."

"Non-Asari youths." Trena reminded him, covering a yawn with a cup of strong tea, "Racist dicks. We sure they're all headed for us? Shit for gear or not, that many morons could cause a lot of trouble on the streets."

Nynsi shrugged slightly, "The mansion is a known location, as is who owns it. As there are many Batarians in the gang, I doubt that they would want to attack their own people at random to draw us out. The last thing they would want is to cause dissension in their own ranks."

"That's probably why they want to knock us off right away." I felt like I should contribute somehow, "The longer the fight the more of their people might start to wonder why the hell they're fighting their own species instead of the Asari or the Eclipse."

"Something to think about."My boss grunted, "Not sure if we can use that, Xerol that's more your thing than mine. As far as tonight goes, Re'hat's people are still scattered to hell and gone, no way we can get them back. Marn, your team's the only one here right now."

"Plus the dedicated security." Her thick chin gestured towards Ghai, "Her and two other former commandos, plus a dozen staff who can tote a gun a damn sight better than those punks on the way."

"That seems a bit light," I frowned, absently tracing the mansion's layout as Nynsi brought it into focus. "I mean, that's more than we had at the warehouse, but this is big damn building with several ways in and out. Wouldn't be hard for a few to slip in and start shooting us in the back."

"Or wrecking the place." From his tone, our host considered that to be just as bad. "Who is nearest?" A few finger taps later had the glowing locations of his other team leaders drifting above the map. "All right. Leave Re'hat and Chom on street patrol, I want them warning people to keep themselves to shelter tonight. Then tel Yrrich to fort up at the terminal pads. I don't think they'll send anyone after our shuttle pad, but we can't take that risk."

His niece nodded, "That leaves Horthan and Che'hat. They should both make it here before the first of them arrive."

"No." Trena leaned in, grinning broadly, "Better idea. Pull them in, about a block away. As soon as the attack starts, we have them move in and hit these assholes in their assholes."

Marn chuckled darkly, but Nynsi merely rolled her upper eyes in exasperation.

"Figure we'd have what, almost thirty guns inside, and twenty or so outside?"

Xerol nodded slowly, his face becoming concerned. "Give or take, yes. Three to one against us, we should only have issues if they are large numbers of former Eclipse members. Otherwise we should expect to crush them quickly, and that worries me. With what happened at the exchange, they should know we can easily eliminate them. The True Sons may not be overly intelligent on their own, but we cannot assume that their leadership or true masters are as empty-minded as their rank and file. Are we sure that the trucks were loaded with regular street members?"

"Reasonably so." It was her turn to frown, staring at the image, the estimated time of arrival slowly ticking down in the corner. "But even a small number of them mixed in could be.. problematic."

Trena grunted darkly, "Yeah. Ape, what do you think?"

I blinked. "You're asking me?"

Her eyes rolled slightly, "There's nothing wrong with your damn brain, even after it's been gnawed on a bit."

"Gee, thanks." A long exhale escaped me, and I tried to put my thoughts into order.  _All right. What do we know?_ "We know that they are coming, logically they are heading straight here. But if we assume that either their leaders, or the Blue Suns actually calling the shots, are at least as smart as we are.."

She nodded slowly, "You think they should know it's a suicide mission."

"Exactly." One of my hands rose to rub at my face, "If there aren't at least twenty or thirty regulars hidden with the chaff, they're just throwing away a hundred or so people. Even then we should be able to see them off without too much of a hassle. What the hell could they really hope to gain?"

"Distract us maybe?" Marn rumbled, all of her eyes drawn narrow in concentration. "Maybe they want to pin us down here while they do something else?"

I waved my other hand, "No. As soon as they hit us we can call in I-Sec. Not that we will," I hastened to add at seeing several alarmed expressions, and I belatedly remembered that I was basically in a cimelord's mansion. "But we'd have the right to do so, and a few squads of pissed off Asari cops would tear them apart just as fast as we will. If I had to guess.."

"Guess then." Xerol waved a hand at me. "They seem to be well reasoned."

"Ok.." No pressure then. "So, we assume our opponents are as smart as we are, which means they know it's a suicide run. Why would you send a hundred odd gang members just to die in an attack you know will fail? It can't be just these two bosses jumping the gun, they'd have gotten called back by someone higher up if they really didn't want them to go. Maybe.. they could be testing us. See how we react, maybe try and panic us into calling in more of your people to give them id's or at least a number count. Which brings up its own bit of bad news.."

Trena was ahead of me there, "That they have a hundred odd people to waste on provoking us."

"Yeah." And wasn't  _that_  a cheery thought? "Seriously, where the fuck do they get that many recruits?"

"As I said, that is a question I would like answered." Xerol's cane thumped the floor once, hard. "This time I want prisoners, especially their leaders. Get that out to the squad leaders. On the chance that they are not coming to the mansion, I want everyone ready to mount up into skycars on short notice."

We all nodded, all of our eyes slowly sliding to the timer slowly counting downwards in estimation.

Trena slid to her feat, "Xerol, I want you to stay in here with your other bodyguards. No fucking way we lose you tonight."

The Lord of the house looked briefly as if he would protest, but stilled when both she and Nynsi gave him firm stares, though it was his niece that spoke. "Uncle, you are the one who has the loyalty of your people, by personal honor, familial loyalty, or by payment. I could, perhaps, keep everyone together for a time if you were to die, but many would abandon Khar'shan minor if you were to fall. You cannot be risked."

"I believe you do yourself a disservice Nyn, but I will agree with the pair of you this day."

"Damn straight you will." Our Asari commander grumbled, "Right. Marn, your people are on the entrance hall. Ghai, I want two guards at each of the servant's entrances. You and I will stay here until we're needed. Little Shaaryak," Nynsi's shoulders tensed visibly, but she relaxed a bit when I put a hand onto her arm, "Ape, you'll take the rest of the local staff and hold the garage."

"That gives us, what, four others?" I nodded slowly, "We can shift the air cars into a pretty solid position in there."

"Let her handle that. You need to get armored up."

I blinked rapidly, "Scales.. you know that it still needs a crap-ton more tests before it's ready for combat."

"The barriers are online, the armor's in place. I ain't asking you to assault the damned Presidium, I'm telling you to be a turret. Now stop fucking arguing and grab a bigger gun."

My answer was pure reflex to the sight of an annoyed Trena, "Yes boss."

"Get moving then, and stay in bloody contact."

I sketched a salute with two fingers, and was out the door just ahead of Nynsi.

"Come on, armory is this way." she set off at a quick trot and I hurried to keep up. "Cieran, are you sure that your armor is ready?"

"Not in the least," I admitted, nodding briefly to a pair of servants, both of whom had ditched their livery for light armor and shotguns, "I haven't done any real stress tests yet, so I guess this will have to count."

"I need to get to the garage to get things shifted, if your suit locks up we will need it to be in cover so that you can get out without getting shot to pieces." she hissed out a breath, "Can you make it back there?"

I nodded, "Armory is down this hall, left, second left?"

"Yes. And Cieran?"

I slowed, "Yes?"

A hand grabbed me by the chest plate, dragging me forwards into her lips. It was brief, but left my mouth tingling with the earthy flavor of hers, "You are  _not_ dying today."

"Yes ma'am. Nyn?" My right arm snaked up, my hand wrapping around the back of her neck as I pulled her in for a second searing kiss. "You aren't either."

She chuckled as we broke apart, her upper eyes lidded. "Of course not, my Harath'krem."

I sighed a bit at what was apparently my new pet name, but still smiled at her back as she walked away, a bit of sway in her gait that brought my eyes to her hips and.. other assets. Even in her armor, there was plenty to enjoy. There was another sigh as she vanished down her own hall, this one more honestly regretful.

Shaking myself, with a bit of mental berating for not keeping my head on such minor things as surviving the upcoming fight, I set out for the armory.

Thankfully I avoided getting lost on the quick trip, my memory for once proving to be correct when it came to directions. Most of the guns were Turian design, which made sense. It was hard, even for someone like Xerol, to get quality Batarian weaponry outside of the Hegemony. They had an, admittedly justified, poor opinion of most human weapons. Which really left Asari and Turian designs, and Turian weapons tended to be more reliable, and cheaper, if less flashy, which suited Xerol's.. partially legitimate enterprises just fine. The small collection of Asari designs present probably all belonged to Ghai, and her two companions I still had yet to meet.

"Disciple.. Disciple.. Acolytle... Pilgrim... ah, there's a Visage." I muttered to myself before grabbing the gun, inspecting it as it expanded. It had a similar appearance to a disciple, albeit being nearly twice as long and without the shotgun's backwards curve. Of course, it was really the length that was annoying, it was easily a third again as long as a Lancer, with the forward grip far enough ahead that I knew my shoulders would ache if I tried to use it out of my armor. "No wonder the Asari never seem to use this, damn thing's awkward as hell."

 _You're talking to yourself out loud Cieran. Shut up and move!_ I kicked myself with a quick shake of my head, collapsed the weapon, and set off at a jog. The halls were largely empty by this point, I only caught the occasional glimpse of the servants without combat training ducking into what I guessed were panic rooms or concealed passages to take them to those.

When I made it back to the garage, I found Nynsi directing the placement of the last of the skycars. They'd moved most of them off to the side, were they'd hopefully be out of the way, but parked four in a rough line a few yards in front of the back wall. Bumper to bumper, a pair directly in front of the door, the others with their noses pressed up against the walls, leaving small avenues for us to move through if we needed to advance. Everything else, including the crate they'd brought my armor with, had been shoved against the wall opposite the cars, leaving a wide open kill space.

They'd used something, probably the room's power lifter, to drag the armor over by the door. I wouldn't have much cover given the slim nature of the cars, but it was better than nothing.

 _They'd have to be fucking stupid, or insane, to rush us in here. Even if they've got quality armor and shields.. they'd have to be bloody vanguards to cross the distance to get to us._ It was a good fifteen or twenty yards from the cavernous entrance to where the cars were parked, and I found myself thankful that Xerol had enough money to waste it on such a massive garage.

"We leaving the main doors open?" I rested the weapon against the armor's legs, bringing up my omni-tool to crack it open.

Nynsi nodded from where she was making sure the last car was flush against the wall. "The more we can entice to die here, the better. I want you two behind on the far right, you on the left." The guards nodded briskly as they finished up, double checking their weapons as they headed to their assigned locations.

While she did that, I started the long process of getting into the exoskeleton. First I attached my trusty sub-machine gun to the pad I'd put on the right hip specifically to hold it. If I had to get out, there was no way I was relying on the awkward assault rifle I'd never used to defend myself. As I started the actual process of getting in, I found I'd been right about a few things. I  _could_ fit into it while I was wearing my light armor, but it also made me take even more care getting in because of how tight of a fit it became. My waist in particular, with the tech mine dispenser, just barely fit through the gap.

"You all right in there human?" It took me a moment to recognize Ullik in his heavy armor plating rather than the mechanic's uniform I'd see earlier, all of his eyes watching as I finished slithering in.

"You just worry about your own gear." I slid my fingers into the waldo grips that extended down into the metallic fingers a few inches beyond my own. As soon as both hands were in place, I jabbed my chin forwards onto the hatch close button. It shut with a whir of motors, my body reverberating slightly as the main engine automatically started up behind me. "You know how to use that shotgun?"

"We'll find out, won't we?" He apparently had no problem picturing the less than confident look on my face, because he chuckled before moving past to settle in next to the man I thought was the chef, except he was holding a Phaeston rather than cutlery.

"Nyn, could use your help here." I called out, glad that the speakers were working all right at least. My hands reached down to pull up my new gun, and it felt far more comfortable now than it had when I'd been holding it normally.

"What do you need?"

"There should be a port on the back of my waist, with a cable coiled up right there. I need the gun plugged directly in to sync it to my HUD."

She moved quickly, ducking around behind me to do as I asked, her own helmet already on. "Why not link them remotely?"

I sighed, "My omni-tool isn't linked to the suit, or the gun. That was on the to-do list for tomorrow."

"Can you get it done in the next five to ten minutes?" Her hands quickly stretched the cord to the butt of the weapon, finding the terminal normally meant for maintenance on its own internal software.

"It would take me twice that long just to get them linked through the security protocols." I bowed my torso forwards, the closest thing I could manage to a nod without a head to visibly move, as she finished the connection. "Figure at least two to three hours of debugging after that."

"Watch your gun side then." she gave it a quick jerk to make sure the locks were secure on both ends. "Can you still use it without the connection?"

I watched as my HUD lit up with a targeting reticle, the basic routines I'd installed at least managing that much. The blank panel for my weapon flickered once, then showed a heat bar. If I'd had time to properly get my omni-tool linked to the suit, and my gun linked to both, I'd have at least twice as much data open to me, but I'd just have to make do. "Sure, just don't expect me to hit much or have any idea when the gun is about to melt."

My companion muttered something uncouth before rapping a fist on my chest plate, "You have the left car. I have the right. If you have to bail, let us know right away so we can cover you better."

"Of course." I worked the arms a bit, making sure the cable didn't get caught in the joints.  _Ok.. first run in this thing. Let's hope it does what it's supposed to. Especially if the alternative is the whole thing locks up in the first minute, I try to get out, and get shot full of bullets. Yeah.. you can work just fine armor, you hear me?_

The suit, predictably, didn't respond.

" _Everyone in the mansion, get your asses moving if you ain't in position already. We've got six trucks and a dozen skycars breaking from traffic and heading straight here."_ There was a pause, " _Good news, the mansion's barriers should stop them from just crashing in and killing us all together in a blaze of fucking disaster. Better news, still no word from anyone on follow up groups."_ Another pause, " _Xerol wants to say something, probably fucking poetry."_

A long sigh came through my helmet, making my lips twitch into a grin. " _Please forgive our heathen companion my friends, she lacks the ability to properly appreciate our culture. I ask that you all remember the five Pillars of Strength upon which we stand. Power, Knowledge, Heart, Kin, and Unity. May they all hold us as we defend our home this night."_

Nynsi and the others murmured something together that sounded spiritual.

" _Right.. poetic, like I said."_ I could practically see Trena's irreverent shrug, " _Athame can watch over us too, I suppose. If her sacred ass isn't too damn busy watching over the sluts and lazy assed bitches on the Citadel."_ I had to bite my teeth to stop from laughing. " _Anyways, looks like they're making their final approach... cameras show three to the garage, two for the front door. Last is setting up to circle with the skycars. If they've got better troops with I'd bet all my fucking money they're in those."_

 _"Expect contact in moments."_  Xerol spoke through another sigh, this one sounding like it came from Ghai's raspy throat. " _Call out at once if you require reinforcements, respond with readiness if you please."_

_"This is Marn, the entrance hall will be their deathtrap. And we'll try not to ruin the art."_

_"_ This is Nynsi. The garage is team is secure and prepared." She seemed to make it a point to be as formal as possible, as she usually did whenever Trena was in earshot.

The various paired security guards followed, varying in degrees of formality and military bearing. Most tended closer to Marn's dark eagerness without quite making it as far as Trena's commentary.

I blew out a long breath, sliding into place behind my skycar. I was a good two feat taller than it, and winced as I slowly settled into a crouch. The servos whirred quietly as my right knee settled onto the floor, my left leg settling aside to help me keep my balance. Holding the gun in just one hand, and smiling a little to myself at being able to do so, I laid it along the roof of the car.

"Ullik, Bolz. Neither of you have chokes on those shotguns? No? Right, you two hold your fire until they try and move in. Rane'li, you're on cover fire. Keep yourself down until one of us has to cool down, then let loose with everything." The slim woman nodded, leaning against the car as she tucked her rifle close. "If you see anyone with a heavy weapon, take them out at once. We can't afford to have our cover taken out."

 _Or me._ I resisted a shudder. I might have enabled my barriers, but the enhancements to boost their strength was something I didn't expect to have time for for several days yet. A missile would reduce me to.. well, an unpleasant collection of meat and metal.

" _Look sharp.. here they come._ " Trena's voice came just as a floating truck buzzed to a landing. It was about half the size as the ones we'd seen in the warehouse, probably liberated from an honest delivery service.

The first driver was, to be blunt, a fucking idiot. He spun the vehicle around so that the people leaping out of the back could sprint directly into the garage. Which would have been all right if there hadn't been anyone inside waiting for them. Instead all he, or she I supposed, managed to do was to give us a shooting gallery straight into his vehicle.

I jerked my weapon up, settling my left hand onto it as a brace, and fired off a quick burst. Nynsi opened up with her scoped pistol at roughly the same moment, quickly followed by the chef and his Phaeston.

There were a few screams as forms tumbled out, red mist puffing into the air as the gang members died. More shouts and cries followed as those behind tried to push their way forwards, realizing that they had to get out or die.

My first burst surprised me by how little I noticed the recoil.. as in, not at all. I'd automatically tried to compensate for what I'd come to expect from my normal gun, and managed to track the few rounds down and to the left rather than letting the gun remain steady. Still.. it didn't really matter given the situation. I adjusted my grip and let go at full auto.

It was a slaughter. I found myself wincing soon after pulling off the trigger to let the gun cool. We were maybe twenty seconds in and there was a good dozen True Sons dead or bleeding out in the back of the vehicle, a few quiet cries barely audible over its engine. The cabin itself must not have been armored, because it slurred drunkenly to one side before digging a soft divot into the soil as it landed.

"Well.." I spoke up quietly, "Round one complete."

Nynsi managed to convey exasperation, even through her helmet, but Ullik and Rane'li both chuckled loudly. "This is Nynsi, first truck is down. Amateurs."

" _Confirmed. First assault on the entrance hall was repulsed without losses."_ Trena reported back as we all watched for the next targets to arrive. " _Fucking morons just rushed in the front doors. Cameras show them spreading out now, so listen out so your asses don't get flanked."_

"Understood. Both remaining trucks landing!" Her voice rose a bit as the two vehicles appeared. Showing that even these guys could learn from their mistakes, one moved out of view entirely, probably to set down our of our sight, while the other swung around so that the already downed truck would cover its people as they disembarked.

"I hate enemies who can learn." I muttered, firing off a short burst as someone ducked their head around the right corner. My shots went wide, but Nynsi's pistol roared once, sending blue blood flying as the Turian dropped limply.

"Cieran, Loram, cover the truck. I've got this side."

The chef and I both nodded, though she couldn't see me do so, and shifted our gaze left.

"Hey, human. You hear me in there?" There was a triple shot from the Phaeston, and a yelp of surprise from another Turian as she ducked back into cover.

"Obviously." A few rounds of my own sent a Salarian spinning to the ground, screaming as he clutched at his shoulder. The Turian dragged him back into cover a heartbeat before bullets sent dirt flying where he'd been laying. The poor idiots still hadn't even managed to shoot back.

The chef laughed over Nynsi firing off several more shots. "Just wanted to say I'm surprised you're here is all."

"There are days when I wonder... but right now I'm wondering if the back of that truck is bullet proof."

"Be my guest, I'll cover you."

"An excellent cook as well as a gentleman." Anything he was going to say to that was drowned out when I tightened my metal finger, and didn't let up until the bar on my HUD flashed red angrily and the Visage locked up. It would seem that the truck's walls were  _not_  bullet proof. Or even bullet resistant. A new chorus of screams went off as I liberally sprayed fire into the general area I thought they might be, the shots tearing through the thin skin and into the equally thin flesh behind. The pair we'd shot at earlier both emerged, frantically trying to clear the area, only to be brutally shot down by my newest acquaintance.

I couldn't really duck down any further, so I had to settle for shifting the gun and its vulnerable cable behind the car as I waited for it to cool off.

The survivors apparently chose that moment to sprint for the cover offered by getting out of our sight. A half a dozen broke from behind the truck, racing for the opposite side of the garage from where their companions were sensibly keeping themselves concealed. The first shots were fired by the gang in our little conflict, all of them shooting wildly as they ran.

It's hard enough to hit something when you had armor and linked weapon systems. Trying to hit targets in cover, while running, and with pistols more suited for scrapping than firing, was next to impossible. Their shots went wild, sending sparks flying as they struck the floor, ceiling, cars, and walls behind us. Loram's controlled shots, joined by Rane'li firing on full auto, was not nearly so inaccurate. One of them, a Batarian, made it. The rest were dead long before they could cross the few yards to safety.

"We're down to one on the left," I called out as I brought my rifle back up, the heat bar flashing green.

Nynsi grunt carried across my radio, "The ones are the right as skittish, they have stopped trying to even look at us. Trena, do you read?"

" _Yeah, I hear you little Shaaryak. They've stopped trying to push the front door as well, and only a few fuckers tried to get in the windows or servant's doors. Your uncle's people saw them off easy as ever."_ There was a pause, " _Hate to agree with you ape, but can't help but feel you were right. They're getting something out of this, but it sure as hell isn't from these poor kids."_

"Thanks scales." I tracked my gun from left to right, then back, waiting for someone to show themselves.

"What is the status of the last truck and cars?" Nynsi broke in before Trena or I could go back to debating over the open channel. Which was probably a bad idea, come to think of it. It probably wasn't raising anyone's morale.

" _Circling.. wait, they're heading down. Landing.. your side of the mansion. Get ready for more company."_

 _"_ Understood."

The word was barely out before the last truck roared down. This was no inexperienced driver, slowly bringing the vehicle down. They came in like they were flying a combat shuttle, the engines roaring at the last moment to prevent a crash. I'd hardly begun to shift my aim when the back doors were flung open, and heavily armored forms dropped out, each bearing the mark of the True Sons on their chests.

It would seem that the veterans had arrived, and had brought the real fight with them.

* * *

**Next up is Chapter 3: The Gambit**

* * *

**Random**   **Facts from the Author:**

_True Sons: Despite the name, not all members of the gang are actually male, as was seen in the warehouse battle. The "Sons" portion of the name is both a play on the "Suns" of the Blue Suns, and a reference to the fact that the Asari, whom they hate, cannot bear sons._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yup, I'm a jerk who cut this battle sequence in half to spread it over two chapters. The first step is the opening, obviously, and will now be followed up by the actual purpose behind the attack on the mansion.. and we'll see just what their gambit behind this plan is.
> 
> The armor also gets its first workout, although how much of a workout that is when all he's doing is crouching behind a car and shooting gang members too poor to afford actual guns and armor is debatable. Now that the regulars have arrived though, things should get pretty interesting.
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	15. The Gambit

_I don't own Mass Effect, nor will I profit from this story._

* * *

**Act II: Chapter 3: The Gambit**

If their arrival hadn't made it clear that these were the actual mercenaries amongst the wider gang, their immediate reactions in the moments after they landed made it plainly obvious. The first trio in sight dropped to their knees and started firing at full auto, the fire forcing everyone but me to duck. Behind them, more forms dropped out of the truck's bed, and dashed left and right to get out of our sight.

 _Dammit._ I started firing controlled bursts into the the human anchoring the three providing covering fire, and cursing some more as sparks flew from his barriers.

Naturally, my shots drew their attention to the fact that there was someone who hadn't taken cover from their suppressing shots, and all three let off for a brief moment before shifting their aim in my direction. Most of the rounds went wide, snapping past me or slamming into the car, but a few pinged off of my barriers, the glowing halo around my suit read-out growing dimmer with each hit... and growing dimmer far more rapidly than the few hits should have caused.  _Motherfucking son of a bitch._

"Up, up! Concentrate fire!" Nynsi snapped out, suiting actions to her words and putting shots into the human I was still trying to put rounds into. Her aim, as usual, was better than mine, her monster of a pistol breaking through the weakened barrier and tearing the man's neck apart on her third shot.

Loram and Rane'li, the latter realizing that now wasn't the time to stick to cover, popped up as well, both focusing on the next target in line. The Turian stumbled to his feet, reeling as the shots began to pound into his shields. His last companion, another Turian, shot upwards, trying to shove him towards the cover to the left. He tried to fire his rifle one handed to cover them, and I couldn't help but grin as it seized up from the heat after a short burst. I joined the other two, and between the three of us, the merc managed only a pair of stumbling steps before collapsing in a pool of blue blood. I tried to shift my aim to the last target, but he quickly dove out of sight around the corner, chased by Nynsi's shots.

"Dammit." I risked another quick glance aside at my readout. "My barriers are down to half, they aren't recharging properly either."

"Dammit." Nynsi echoed, twisting her helmet to regard me for a brief moment before quickly turning back. "Do you need to get out?"

"No." My legs shifted slightly as I traversed my aim between the two corners at the far end of the garage, "I'm good for now, the armor is the main defense anyways."

"All right. T'laria, we've got at least ten here with at least medium level armor and modern weaponry."

" _Copy that. Son of-_ " A pair of gunshots rang out across the channel, " _Stay down you little fucker. Four more showed up at the entrance hall, assholes are making the gang punks fight smarter."_

"Where's the rest?" My sudden worry about the missing enemies took a back seat when our own little battlefield lit up again. Two figures appeared, both left and right, one crouching down while the other stood. None of them really bothered with aiming, instead going all out on the suppression fire.

"Cieran, hold until they move!" I quickly let off the trigger before I could start shooting, and instead tried to make my bulky form seem smaller. They waited a handful of seconds before making their move, the surviving gang members running around their more experienced counterparts, their pistols up as they sprinted wildly at us. Behind them, five more veterans appeared, moving far more slowly, content to let their compatriots soak up our bullets while they surveyed the scene. The covering fire dropped off the moment the gang members were out in front, the mercs probably content with their new meat shields and eager to let their guns cool so as not to experience what their initial covering team had suffered.

I pulled in a long breath as I twisted my aim to the right, then exhaled as I started firing short bursts. With how weak their barriers were, and since they were all still dressed in street clothes.. I did my work as a turret emplacement as efficiently as if I was in a tower defense game. Of course, the fact that I was killing real people, kids probably too stupid or ignorant to realize what was happening, didn't do much for my state of mind. Personally, I got five of them before Ullik and Bolz popped up, their shotguns roaring in the confined space as they dropped the last two.

"There's two more!" Somebody, sounded Turian, shouted. "Grenade rush!"

 _That doesn't sound-_ was as far as I got in the mental commentary before four of them whipped tech mines and honest grenades at us. Everybody but me hit the deck a few heartbeats before the explosions went off. My HUD shrieked alarms in my ears as an overload wiped out my paltry barriers, though the plating held up to the fragments that left deep scratches across the plating.

In the meantime, they were trying to pull off the same strategy Trena had used to clear out the last Blue Suns at the warehouse. The back four had slid outwards, sending covering fire over the cars my companions were behind, while the other five broke into a sprint. My head treated me to a vision of them jumping onto the cars, simply gunning down my companions who were still reeling from the grenades.

_I need to draw their attention to me, give them time to get up and back into the fight._

Thankfully, there was an easy way to do that, though the armor itself didn't help the terror that went through my mind at what was I about to do.

Forcing my left leg straight, I propelled myself up all the way to my full height, focusing my aim on the Turian who seemed to be in command as I started firing.

"What the shit!?" one of the humans stumbled as I rose, practically tripping as the size of my armor became apparent. "Focus on the big fucker!"

"No!" The Turian tried to keep them properly shooting at my vulnerable friends, but whatever else he was going to say was drowned out by the others all skidding to a halt and letting me have it. What followed was the most terrifying experience of my life. My armor shuddered as what sounded like pounding hail rained against it, my body rocking back as the eezo core tried to compensate for the force of the impacts. I lost the cable to my gun almost at once, my HUD flashing with errors as the connection was lost.

I kept up my own fire as best I could, most of the rounds going wild without the targeting assist, but it was enough to make a few of them duck and slacken their own attacks. It got harder when something found the joint on my left arm, the wire-frame blinking furiously red as several of my elbow servos locked up. "Fuck!"

"Get up! Pillars fail you all, stand up and shoot!" Nynsi swore violently as she ripped her short range pistol free, simply dropping her other weapon as she opened fire. Apparently hearing her cursing was all the others had needed. Bolz was down and unmoving, but the other three staggered upright and started shooting. At that range, they could hardly miss. Shields and armor or no, two of the mercs died almost at once from their combined fire. The rest belatedly realized that there were opponents present way deadlier than me, and tried to shift their attention. A Batarian and a Salarian died before they could really accomplish that, Nynsi's shredder modded pistol blowing the former's helmet apart, while Rane'li hosed down the latter after Ullik blew his shields apart.

_I can't hit anything from back here, and everyone's shields are still down.._ _Time to do something else stupid._

Not bothering to waste time thinking about it, it would only terrify me into immobility anyway, I started moving, my extended legs carrying me quickly around the car. The movement served to keep me as the center of attention, more of my status readout flashing yellow or red as shots found chinks in the armor I hadn't had the time to reinforce after testing.

Bracing my weapon as best I could with my locked up left arm, I held down the trigger until the weapon refused to fire, tracking the shots across a pair of other humans as best I could. One collapsed, clutching at this throat as blood rapidly pooled out, the other dropped limply as one of my shouts managed to break through the visor on his helmet.

Several of my joints locked up or not, I was feeling pretty good at that moment. After all, we'd just evened the odds, my armor was holding up, relatively speaking, and everyone else was still in cover whereas they were in the open.

That good feeling lasted until the Turian dropped his rifle, ripped a short-barreled shotgun from a hip, and sent a overcharged carnage round right into my chest from about two yards away.

"Cieran!"

I'd adjusted the eezo core to handle me moving around, even managing short runs and mild maneuvering. That all was very far cry from being hit by what amounted to a small missile. It didn't actually pick me up off my feat, the exoskeleton was far too heavy for that, but it did send me flailing backwards to crash onto the car's hood. All the while my primitive alarms were shrieking in my ears, telling me what I already knew; my chest armor was very, very compromised.

Things got a bit blurry after that. There was lot more gunfire as I rolled to my left, tumbling to the floor in a clatter of metal.  _Dammit, have to get up._

Somehow I'd managed to keep the Visage gripped in my still working arm, and I winced as I realized that my left arm was now totally locked into place. Plus something was pinching at my upper arm... hopefully it was a bit of the suit, and not adrenaline preventing me from feeling something more severe. Using the gun as leverage, I hauled myself upright in time to see the last opponent standing, the damn Turian that had flattened me, get tackled to the ground by Rane'li. She was bleeding from a few holes on her right arm, but as credibly beating him over the head with her gun all the same.

"Stop! Take him alive!" I saw Nynsi vault her car on the edges of my main view screen, quickly stepping up to grab the other Batarian woman just as she was about to bring her battered weapon down again. "Rane'li, we need him alive!"

She managed to pull her off of the unconscious form, though kept a pistol aimed at him all the same. "Loram, check Bolz. Ullik, check on Cieran."

"I'm all right Nyn." I nearly tumbled back down when I moved a bit too quickly, and resolved to move slowly. "Armor.. is going to need some work."

"Some work." the mechanic chuckled as he moved around, "I can see you in there two-eyes, and you're sparking like a broken transmitter."

"Great."

" _Shaaryak, you there? We've got a fucking problem. I can't raise the guards from the east wing, first floor. Ghai and I are on the way, but you're closer. Who can you spare?"_

Nynsi quickly glanced over all of us. Me, needing a least a minute to get out of the tattered armor. Rane'li, obviously injured. Ullik and Loram seemed all right, if a bit scorched from the grenades, but the latter had merely shaken his head after checking on Bolz.

"Loram and I are on the way."

" _Stay in contact."_

 _"_ Understood. Cieran, get out of that deathtrap. Ullik, I need you to get this creature behind cover and then watch him. Rane'li, do your best to cover them both and get some medigel on your arm."

We all nodded briskly, Nynsi giving me a long glance through her helmet before heading out with the chef beside her. They covered each other as they exited the room, making sure to lock the door behind them as they exited into the hallway.

I blew out a long breath, feeling a bit relieved now that our little action seemed to be over, and butted my chin into the release button... only for nothing to happen.

_What the hell?_

I hit it again, and frowned when the torso refused to open.  _Those motors aren't showing up as damaged, what the hell.. maybe something is stuck in the lines._ "Hey, Rane'li?"

"Hrn?" she glanced over at me from where she'd taken up a spot leaning on a car, half watching the far entrance to the garage, half focusing on bandaging her arm.

"Mind coming over here and checking something? I can't get out of this bloody thing. It might be a fragment lodged in the back that my read-outs aren't reporting."

She shrugged, but stood up all the same. "Yell if you see someone come in."

"Not a problem." I assured her, keeping an eye out as she walked around me. Ullik was busy dragging the Turian through the gap between the other set of cars. The guy's helmet was battered and dented, and I made a mental note never to get Rane'li that pissed off at me.

"What are you two up to over there?" Ullik called out after dropping the legs of his cargo, reaching up to take his helmet off once he'd done so.

"Something's locked me in here, and get your helmet back on. Could still be more of them out there."

"Nah, that should be the last of this group." He shrugged, casually hefting up his shotgun. "Hey, Rane, you see anything back there."

"No." I felt myself shift as she started jerking loose plates aside to get a better view, "He wasn't even hit back here."

"Well what the hell is causing this then?" I grumbled, hitting the button again, and again swearing when nothing happened.

"How would I know?" she snapped, "Maybe something in the front?"

"You should check." Something about the way Ullik said that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Little other things grabbed at my attention. The helmet he'd taken off. How calm he was.

"Whatever." she ducked under my awkwardly locked left arm, regarding the mess that was my chest plating. "What am I looking at?"

The shot hit her in the back, her body ricocheting off of my chest before spinning to the ground. She fell limply, not moving at all.

"Not looking behind you, obviously." Ullik lowered his gun, his sharpened teeth gleaming as he grinned. "Stupid bitch."

"What the FUCK!" I tried to snap my right arm up, to bring my unwieldy weapon to bear. His fingers moved faster than I could, his omni-tool flashing as he input a command. My arm locked up at once, the finger manipulators freezing into place, stopping my from pulling the trigger.

"You even told me," his voice was smug, "I have a talent. I never would have imagined a human would be so naïve as to allow a me to mess with his suit's programs. You didn't even double check them for excess code."

My teeth ground as I frantically tried to work out what the hell I could do.

"Don't bother calling for help either, I had three different run times in place to take your comms out." he chuckled again, turning to regard the unconscious Turian. "Stupid shit, getting beaten up by that little brat. She wouldn't even sleep with me you know, turned me down half a dozen times." There was nothing I could do to stop him from casually aiming his gun and blowing our prisoner's head into fragmentary pieces amidst a spray of blue blood. "Stupid bitch, like I said. Then again, that upper caste whore is sleeping with a human, so I'm not really sure why I'm even surprised anymore."

I shifted as best I could, trying to keep Rane'li's prone form covered with my body as he spoke.  _Dammit. What the hell... I can't get to him fast enough, not with how damaged this thing is. He'd just ram his shotgun into the plating gap and kill you. What do you have.. what do you have.. I have my smg, but I can't let go of this damn thing.._

"So.. you're working them. The True Sons." I spoke, hoping that he'd be as cliched as most bad guys were and love talking about himself.

"These fuckers?" he gave the corpse a kick, "As if I would lower myself to work for alien scum."

 _Oh great._ "So, Nynsi's parents then?"

"Fifty thousand credits for you, live delivery." He practically moaned the amount, "And a new set of identification papers that will let me get back into the Hegemony. Here I was worried about how hard this would be.. instead you practically gift-wrapped yourself for me."

In my rear view, Rane'li twitched, her body slowly curling as she struggled to breath. I shifted again, making sure that between me and the car, he couldn't see her, a desperate plan slowly creeping into my head.  _Come on girl.. don't die on me._

"Don't worry about your whore." Apparently now that I was at his mercy, he just couldn't shut up. Not that I was about to stop him. "I'm not the only one here who remembers what species he is. I'm just the insurance plan in case they fail, but what do I care? So long as I get paid."

_Nynsi.. have to get out of this and warn her, and Trena._

My eyes flicked back and forth. He was using his omni-tool to scan the various skycars, no doubt trying to figure out which had the least damage. Rane'li was still coming around, but there was still a lot of blood on the ground her.. I had no idea if she was even capable of what I hoped, but I couldn't think of any other options.

I shifted again, turning so that my right leg was close to the car. "So, now what. You pick a car, tell me to get out, and drag me away?"

"Something like that. I know you've got that little mine launcher of yours in there. I've got plenty of drugs right here," he patted a pocket, "You'll be in dreamland before I pull you out of your shell. Ah, this one will do." The car that Rane'li and Bolz had been behind started up at his command, it engine rumbling quietly as the lights flicked on. "Still, I suppose I should be thanking these lesser things. Without their attack, I might never have had such an easy time of it. I was worried I'd have to convince you to take me on a training run somewhere."

"I'm surprised you didn't make your move right when they first attacked." I tried to keep him going, keep him from coming over here just yet. "Wouldn't that have been even easier?"

He was scavenging through his pockets, pulling out familiar looking syringes. "Maybe it would have. But how could I pass the chance to kill these creatures? Ugh. Even worse, I might have been forced to share the reward with them. I should demand more payment as it is, for shutting up the prisoner before he could talk."

Rane'li rolled slightly, a hand reaching out to touch my metal foot. Her other rose, shaking, and pointed firmly at the gun on my right hip. I twitched my left arm as best I could, hoping that she'd take it to mean that I'd seen her.  _Great minds thinking alike.._

 _"_ Well, can't take too much more time. Not with those blue whores loose."

"Yeah, wouldn't want one of them to smear the walls with your entrails." I watched as he walked towards me, one handing his shotgun while his other kept the syringe ready. "I suppose you'll just shoot me a few times if I try to resist?"

"Just once. Can't have you dying on me."  _Closer.. closer.._

"Yeah, be a shame to cost you that much money."  _Almost.. now!_  I jerked myself as hard to the right as I could, scraping my side along the car. At the same time, I did my best to, well, skip. I probably looked like a giant robot suffering from a seizure, but it did the job. My sub-machine gun clattered to the ground, knocked loose by the direct impact, and I followed it, once again slamming to the ground. The little hop had been enough to tilt me away the gun and Rane'li, making sure I fell on neither.

"Seriously two eyes.. whatever that was supposed to be, it was pathetic." My vision swam a bit, my head having bounced off the side of my armored box on the way down. All the same, I could make out Ullik looming over me, shaking his head. "Well then, time to go, human."

 _Did I knock it too far away? Is she too injured?_ I watched as the syringe became clearer, sliding towards the opening in my armor. I didn't doubt for a moment that the needle was sharp enough to penetrate the thin suit around my actual armor plates.  _No, no way. It's not ending already. Not yet._

I tried to move, tried to dislodge him. Hit him with an arm, or use the gun as a club. Anything. But it was like being paralyzed, my entire body locked in place from a combination of his hacks and battle damage. My breathing grew quicker as I started to panic, thrashing as best I could as he leaned a bit, trying to see the best way to get me.

"You're looking the wrong way, asshole." His head whipped around at Rane'li's pain filled voice. The syringe fell, clattering off my plates, as he tried to bring his gun around. He wasn't fast enough.

There was a pained cry as she hauled herself up and forwards, jabbing my little gun right into his belly before holding the trigger down. Bloody and guts tumbled out in a disgusting fashion as he screamed, the weapon jerking up and away, trailing more shots across his chest before she lost her grip on it. His body toppled backwards, convulsing in its death throes.

"Fucker." Rane'li's helmet dropped onto my chest, her heavy breathing audible in the sudden silence "Always.. hated.. you." A shaking hand rose to touch near her ear, "T'laria, Shaaryak. You.. fuck... there?"

There was a pause, and I desperately wished I could hear the other side of the conversation.

 _"_ Ullik.. traitor. Said.. more traitors inside. For Nynsi." she hissed in pain, "Kean and I.. hurt but alive. Warn them."

"No.. trying to.. get him out now." she started to drag herself off of me, towards the cooling corpse that had betrayed us. "Ullik.. hacked his suit. No.. can't hear you... all right, will tell him. Over."

I shifted impatiently, trying, and failing, to do more than move slightly. "What's happening? Is Nynsi all right? Is Trena?"

"Battle.. over. Gang leaving." It was apparently getting harder for her to talk, and I winced at each pain filled word. "T'laria.. down. Badly hurt. Shut.. up.. now."

_No way.. not Trena._

Her hands fumbled through the process of first removing Ullik's gauntlet, and then the omni-tool. I bit my lip to stop from blurting out questions she probably didn't know the answer to anyway, watching as she brought the device to life and stuttered her way through the commands. Thankfully, he'd had everything he needed to keep me locked down still open when he'd died, and she managed to find a shut-down script relatively quickly.

The torso extended automatically as the engine cut out, and I quickly started working on getting myself free. It was easily twice as hard prone, and something was definitely stabbing my left arm as I worked it out.  _Son of a... fuck!_

All things considered I was free in record time, shaking myself as I crawled over to where she'd collapsed after sending the command.  _Nynsi is safe, or Xerol would have said something. Trena... no, Rane'li is here. She saved me. Have to help._ "Rane'li, you still alive?"

She groaned quietly, "Medi-gel... over where... I was... just... pour it.. on.."

I scrambled upwards, dashing over to find the container she indicated, and then back after I'd grabbed it from the floor. Gently rolling her onto her stomach, I swallowed hard as I got a good sight of her back.

His shotgun had done a number on her. The armor was in tatters, and her pale skin was barely visible under the blood. There were hisses and moans of pain as I quickly grabbed the goo like gel and poured it onto her wounds, hesitating for only a moment before rubbing it in, covering my hands in blood as I did so. Still, she nodded thankfully as the anesthetic built into the stuff kicked in, humanity's gift to the galaxy getting to work on saving her life.

"Cieran?" Nynsi's voice brought my head spinning around. She'd ditched her own helmet, and all of her eyes were on me with worry. My own single pair was locked onto her right arm, which was clutching at a bandage wrapped tightly around her left.

"I'm fine." I managed, turning back to the task at hand with a massive mental effort. "We need a doctor, she's.. in bad shape."

"Don't... have to.. tell me.. that."

"Cieran, you have to help me carry her. The doc is working on T'laria right now, but my uncle's called the local hospitals, they're sending their own people here to help."

Between us we managed to get her upright, one under each arm as we guided her out. Nynsi had us pause near the doorway so that she could slap out the commands to close the main doors. The hallways were initially fairly clear and clean, but that changed as we headed towards the doctor's quarters. Bullet holes and scorch marks started to come into sight, along with the occasional enemy corpse. Or friendly corpse. I winced as we had to step over a dead guardsman, almost growling as I realized that he'd been shot in the back.

"Our other traitor." Nynsi apparently caught my glance, "We managed to take that one alive, to his regret."

"Good." The anger came easily again. "How'd the rest of the fight go?"

"Marn and her people held the main hall easily enough, even after T'laria and Ghai departed. The traitor hid in a service corridor and shot her in the back as she passed." she growled, "My own damned butler, may the Pillars crush him when we're through. Ghai moved to pursue, but was pinned down by True Sons. If Loram and I hadn't taken them from behind.. we caught him later, trying to escape the mansion."

I blew out a long breath, "So, it could have been worse."

"Indeed." there was a pause, "He allowed four of their veterans in, and told them where to find my uncle. His bodyguards handled them, but.. both are badly injured, and he suffered burns as well. They were equipped with heavy weapons.. only the Pillars know how any of them lived."

"Son of a bitch.. so all of this was just to sneak them in. Trena.. she's going to live right? She'll be ok?"

There was a very long pause as the door came into sight, which didn't reassure me in the slightest. "I.. do not know, Cieran. It was some time before Ghai could apply first aid."

My teeth ground, and I lengthened my stride a bit. Nysni hurried to keep pace so that we wouldn't put any strain on Rane'li, who was nodding vacantly, barely able to support any of her own weight anymore. The entry room was a long chamber, and there was already half a dozen wounded Batarians present. None were as bad as our companion, but two of them, dressed as I'd expected nurses to be, quickly hastened to take her from us.

"Miss T'laria is still in surgery." one spoke quickly, her voice tense. "There are ambulances on the way to help with Mistresses Ul'yai and Iyate. We'll have them take her too."

"Thanks.." I stared hard at the door at the far end, biting my lip, trying to think of an excuse to go in an see how she was doing.

The same nurse shook her head, looking like she knew what I was thinking. "I'm sorry sir, but if you aren't injured you should go. I'm sure Mister Shaaryak will be informed the moment Doctor V'Rae has news."

"Come on Cie," Nynsi wrapped her good arm around me, firmly but gently pulling me away. "We should find my uncle. I-Sec will be here soon, if they are not already."

"Ok.." I let her guide me out, feeling the bruising in my chest tightening up again now that the drugs and adrenaline had both worn off. "..how many did we lose?"

"Not including Ullik? Four dead. Bolz, the other traitor's partner, and two from Marn's team." She led me towards the entrance, hall, quietly speaking as we moved. "Why did Ullik wait until I'd left? If he'd have made his move when the grenades went off.."

"He was a racist asshole, and liked killing them." I winced at what I was about to say, "And apparently your parents were ripping off that Asari girl."

Her teeth ground together loudly.

"Fifty thousand and a new name that would get him back to Khar'shan."

"Then they lied to him." she didn't sound broken up about it. "Not even my uncle could manage that for an exile. They probably intended to kill him the moment he brought you."

"Not surprising." I stepped over a dead gang member, her face slack as blood dribbled from her mouth. "How many did we get?"

"Marn's team is counting right now. Che'hat and Horthan's teams are securing the perimeter, no word on further enemy movement." she glanced at me briefly, "Are you all right?"

"Not really. He put in his own hacks yesterday.. and I fucking thanked him for it. Kept me locked in place while he gloated and got ready to cart me off to slaughter.." Laying there, paralyzed, while he stood over me... I shook myself, belatedly realizing something else as I tried to focus on a new subject, "Oh fuck, I'm sorry. Your arm, you're all right?"

"This?" she shrugged slightly, "A scratch, hardly requiring a bandage at all. But thank you for asking."

We arrived in the entrance hall as she said that, finding it filled with bodies. Someone, probably one of the arriving guard teams, had dragged the corpses out of the doorway to clear a path. The massive arched doors themselves had been blown open, one flat on the floor, the other swinging useless from a single hinge.  _Probably a few hundred thousand credits of damage right there._

Xerol was present, a hard-faced Ghai standing beside him. His armor was scorched badly, and his movements were stiff as he slowly paced. She hardly looked any better, and the air shimmered a bit around her as she had to make an effort to keep her biotics under control. "Kean, Nyn. Good. I-Sec is landing outside as we speak. If you could wait here while I speak with them, I will debrief you after."

"Yes, uncle." The pair of us moved, taking up a place against the wall behind him as we waited. She kept touching me in little gestures, as if making sure I was still there. I didn't mind, it helped keep my mind off of my friend still in surgery.

_Dammit scales, don't fucking die on me._

* * *

**Next up is Chapter 4: The Road**

* * *

_RIP Leonard Nemoy. Even as someone who wasn't the biggest Trek fan in the world, the world itself is a sadder place without you._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one took me a bit longer to get through, thanks mostly to work. Hopefully it still works out all right for everyone, and ideally I didn't fuck anything up. Please feel free to let me know if I did.
> 
> The battle resolves itself, and the two separate gambits are revealed. Another attempt to bring Cieran to nyn's parents as a hostage, and another traitor who's actions will be examined more in depth in his interrogation.. which should prove to be interesting. And of course, there is Trena's condition to monitor.. we'll see how she's doing then as well. Things are going to get a bit darker as things keep heating up, just a fair warning there.
> 
> As an aside the fic has been upgraded to an M rating for the language and depictions of violence.
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, K


	16. The Road

_I don't own Mass Effect, nor will I profit from this story._

* * *

**Act II: Chapter 4: The Road**

I slumped in my chair, lowering my head to rest on top of my arms on the dining room table.

"I'm sorry about this Mr Kean," the petite little detective sounded as tired as I felt, and there were purple rings under her light blue eyes. "But I do need to ask you about what happened at your apartment. As you're its owner, not Miss Shaaryak, ultimately you're responsible for what happened."

"Right." I mumbled, distinctly wishing that this could have waited. It was approaching dawn, and for as short as the fight had been, the aftermath was proving to be anything but. I'd stayed with Nynsi and her Uncle in the entrance hall while the local I-Sec Captain had interrogated him about what had happened. He'd given her the cliff-notes version of what was happening, but then had brought up the prisoner we'd taken from my apartment. She'd promptly called the River District unit, gotten in touch with our old friend Detective Wear'an, who had rushed out to question me about it. Of course, by the time she'd gotten here, it was closer to dawn than it was to midnight, and the only thing I wanted to do was find a dark corner and pass out. "You can't just question the Blue Sun we captured?"

"I've already watched the copy of the interrogation Xerol Shaaryak performed," her tiny fingers drummed slowly on the table, "While I was on my way over. However I still need to confirm the details with you."

"Go for it." My head stayed firmly down, sleep singing its siren call. Well, it was until the air stank of ozone, a gentle but firm biotic push rolling me up until I was sitting straight. I tried to give her a disgusted glare, but it probably just came off as an unfocused stare.

"Now, you arrived at your apartment with Miss Shaaryak, how long were you there before your attackers arrived?"

"Maybe five, ten minutes."

Her omni-tool flashed as she started taking notes, her body still glimmering slightly as her biotics continued to hold me upright. "How did you know that there were more than the Asari impersonating I-Sec agents?"

"Security cameras." I yawned massively and let myself slump a bit into her mental grip. "I installed an extra set so I'd have a full one-eighty view from my door."

"Rather paranoid of you," she observed before her lips twitched slightly, "Though apparently vindicated. And you recognized them at once as imposters because of the additional people?"

"Mostly. Hard to picture two guys in all black with silenced guns as legit cops. Plus they botched the opening, said they knew I, as in me, was in there." Her eyes rolled at the mistake, and it was my turn for my lips to twitch. "I know, amateur right? With no other way out, figured the only thing we could do is let them in before they broke down the door anyway."

"It also removed the firefight from the walkway into your apartment. It's entirely possible you reduced civilian casualties by doing so."

"I guess." I shrugged as best I could, not even noticing it I'd done it in the Asari way. Again.

"Well, I should thank you for that all the same. Once they were inside, the two aliens.. non-Asari," she corrected herself, "Made their way to your room while the imposters tried to act naturally. Yourself and Shaaryak were able to take them captive silently."

"Yup. I snuck up behind the Turian, she broke the human's nose. Lured one of the Asari into the room, took her prisoner too."

"And then the last engaged you. You detonated mines you'd set up in your apartment, and the pair of you fought. How were you able to disable an Asari Vanguard on your own?"

"Wasn't easy." My chest throbbed in reminder of that fact, "She almost crushed my ribcage. Made the mistake of assuming I was down after she'd disarmed me and looked to help the prisoners who were trying to attack Nyn. I blindsided her with a tackle, choked her out."

Her omni-tool kept flickering as she kept entering whatever it was she was entering. "Impressive. You then returned here?"

"Yep."

"And you believe that attack had nothing to do with the recent unpleasantness here?"

"Yep."

"Or at the bar named Forever?"

"Yep."

She sighed, "I very much doubt that, but as it took place in your home there is little I can do. Again, please do not leave the planet, I would hate to have to contact C-Sec to hunt you down. I'm going to go ahead and assume that you're not coming in to protective custody. If I need to contact you will you be remaining here?"

"Nope, was going to head back to my apartment. Maybe leave the door unlocked and a welcome mat out for the next group." I almost slammed my head into the table when the bioitc aura I'd been leaning into suddenly vanished, saving myself from a concussion only by throwing my forearms onto the table to brace. "Ow.. right, yeah. I'll be here."

Her body rose to its feet, a small smile on her lips. "I will get back to you once I have learned anything else."

I slumped back down the table, my head coming to rest on the cool wood. I tried not to sound too happy about her imminent departure."Yeah, thanks."

Footsteps clipped across the floor as she departed, the door creaking quietly as it opened and then closed behind her. It stayed shut for all of ten seconds before swinging open yet again, heavier footfalls treading in.

But rather than Nynsi's smooth tones, a raspy growl of a voice spoke. "Kean. Up."

"Ghai?" I groaned, waving a hand vaguely, "How's Trena?"

There was a pause as her stride slowed to a stop. "Still alive."

_Thank.. whoever is up there I guess._ "She going to make it?"

"Yes." Another pause before a hand very hesitantly touched my shoulder, "She's.. not good. But will live."

I sat up slowly, tiredly reaching up to squeeze her hand gently. It had easily been the longest string of words I'd ever heard her say in one go.  _Well.. now you know for sure that you and Nyn aren't the only people already hooked in deep to each other after such a short bit of time._

She backed away after a moment, giving me space to stagger to my feet. "Where's Nyn?"

"Garage. You to Xerol." Her stride matched my slow movements, her chin jerking to the left as we exited the dining room. One of her hands rose, holding a small object for me. "Stims. Painkillers."

I hesitated for a long moment before taking the small case. Not that I was against taking them right now, if I didn't I'd probably end up just falling over. It was more.. were they really stims and my painkillers? Someone could have switched them, be waiting to ambush Ghai and I.. I mean, Ghai was good, but if a traitor could ambush Trena, they could ambush her. If that.. no..

My head shook firmly as I tried to banish the rising paranoia, popping the container open to reveal a pair of pills, one familiar, the other new. I downed them after only another brief hesitation. To my regret, they didn't start up right away, though that didn't really surprise me.  _Stupid knowledge shooting down my irrational hopes.._

If Ghai noticed my hesitancy to take them, she didn't comment on it.

We ended up at the usual conference room, finding only a ruffled looking Xerol seated at the head of the table, and a tired Marn, her good hand on her gun, standing guard behind him. At some point he'd apparently managed to change out of his armor and back into one of his suits, but I noticed that he wasn't moving all that much as he sat in place.

_Wonder how badly he's hurt.._

"Kean. Good to see that the detective finally finished with you." he waved a stiff arm irritably for Marn to stand down, the dour woman rolling her upper eyes as she slid her weapon back into place. "What did you tell her?"

Given that the stims hadn't kicked in yet, and probably wouldn't for a while yet, I didn't dare sit down. Instead I walked in and rested my hands on a chair, "Just what happened at my place. She didn't even ask about the warehouse."

The suited Batarian relaxed slightly, a long breath escaping him before he nodded. "Good. We have had enough happen today without added complexities."

"Tell me about it." A hand let go of the chair so that I could rub at my forehead. "You get anything out of our new prisoner?"

"Regrettably we cannot risk interrogating him yet. I-Sec is still maintaining an active presence on the grounds, and I have no reason to have them leave. Indeed, the Captain is well known to me, and believes she is doing me a favor by taking on some of the guard positions while our people handle the cleanup."

"Sounds like she is." I observed, not bothering to ask how the pair of them knew each other, or why she would volunteer her cops to guard his mansion. My brain slowly started moving at proper speeds again, the drugs probably kick-starting it. "I doubt you called me over here just to ask that though.. let me guess, more of them are on the move?"

His face tightened slightly. "Yes. While you were being questioned, we received word that small groups of gang members have started moving."

"Ah. Fuck."

Marn chuckled, and Xerol's voice turned dry, "Indeed. Re'hat is handling the coordination, but we are not sure of their intentions."

I blinked, waited for him to continue, only to end up frowning when he merely regarded me frankly.

"Cieran, Trena is critically wounded, and Aethyta cannot be reached. I am taking advice wherever I can get it. I have already spoken with Marn, Re'hat, Ghai, and of course my niece. Now I would ask for your opinions."

"Oh. Right then." A long breath escaped me as I thought it over, "What else do we know? Regular gangers only? How many? From where?"

Marn rumbled out the response, "As far as we know, gang kids only. Maybe thirty or forty of them. Drawn from three of the surviving bosses."

I nodded slowly, "So we aren't looking at another attack on us here then. Or even a serious strike on something like the shuttles or any of your bigger businesses. How many bosses do we know of?"

"Two are dead now." she chuckled darkly, "From what that old Matriarch told us before she lit out, should be five big players still breathing. Keep track of them is rough though, assholes have stayed low profile since the Eclipse killed off half of them."

"Ok." Pushing back from the table, I started slowly pacing back and forth, letting my thoughts try and connect into logical chains.  _Fact. We've killed better than a hundred and fifty, pushing two hundred, of them. Fact. The Blue Suns are really pulling the strings. Fact. They have money, but who knows where it's going. Fact. There shouldn't be_ that  _many disaffected alien kids on Illium. Fact. Nynsi's parents are manipulating things from behind the scenes, to kill or abduct me, and to get some control of her._

Ghai, Marn, and Xerol all remained quiet as I worked out what we did know, and to make sense of what the gang slash mercs were doing in that context.

"Where are they all coming from?" I asked aloud, more to myself than to them. "Illium isn't exactly a place where people come to raise their kids. I mean, considering the fact that the gang was supposedly all but destroyed just last year by the Eclipse and I-Sec.. where are all the grieving parents? The bitter siblings? The estranged friends with exclusive stories? I don't remember seeing anything like that on the news."

"There hasn't been." Xerol confirmed, waving for me to continue. I got the impression he'd already worked out his own ideas, and was looking for me to reach the same theoretical conclusions.

It was a guess, but I thought it matched up with what we'd seen so far. "They have to be bringing them in from off world, same as the slaves. Omega maybe. The Terminus probably. That might explain the gear as well, and why the Blue Suns don't seem to give a fuck about them surviving. They can always find more. Few hundred credits would be, what, a small fortune for kids like that?"

"Not quite a fortune, but a definite step up."

I nodded. "So if we assume that they can bring in more cannon fodder, they're probably going to look at buying time to bring in more. If they can keep their more experienced people safe, they just have to build up enough numbers to hit us here again, properly this time."

"Logical." Ghai grunted quietly.

"My thoughts as well. We can get that confirmed once I-Sec has finished interrogating those gang members that survived." his hands caressed his cane slightly, thumping it against the floor a few times. "I've instructed Re'hat to assume that they will start gang warfare soon enough. Hit and run attacks. Arson. Scaring my customers. Intimidating my businesses. Much of the same as was seen last year."

"Great." My pacing slowed to a stop as I tried to will away a rising headache. "What can we do about that?"

"For now? Little besides react." He didn't seem happy about that, "We know precious little about their organization or hold outs. Until we can reach Aethyta, our ability to retaliate will be limited."

"Athame's ass.. do we have any good news?"

"Wrong planet for that kind of thing." Marn advised, her lower eyes glancing at her wounded arm.

Xerol gave her a strong glance that seemed to bounce off her, "We still have the prisoner, who might provide some intelligence once we are able to interrogate him. Soon enough we'll be able to go on the offensive against them, and find out just what my brother is planning. More importantly, he may know how involved Nynsi's parents are."

"Yeah." I blew out a long breath. Privately I thought he was being  _extremely_ optimistic there, but I didn't really want to contradict him. "Co-opting that many guys for a suicide run just to cover a pair of abduction attempts.. you think they'll take some heat for it failing?"

He shrugged slightly, "Possible.. if only because they lost some of their actual fighters, and gave me an in to keep I-Sec involved."

"Any chance that will help?"

"Captain Vasir will do her best, but I do not doubt that my political and corporate enemies will start to lean on her if she tries too much." his cane thumped again, "We need Aethyta to return. She as legitimate contacts in the local councils denied to me, ones that could force I-Sec to increase patrols and routes through Khar'shan Minor by transferring agents from other districts."

"We need that old bitch for more than that." Marn shook her head, one set of eyes on me and the other on her boss, "Soon as those hoary old hags on the council connect us to the warehouse, they could hit you with provocation."

I blinked slowly, "That sounds bad."

"It would label us as responsible for provoking this attack, and even force me to pay blood money for those we killed and assets destroyed." Everyone but him winced a bit at the implications of that. "And I'm sure that they could falsify the records concerning the slaves. The cost of so many indentured servants on top of that could bankrupt me."

"Well.." A hand rubbed at the back of my neck, "..shit. Do we even know where she went?"

Ghai nodded, "Omega."

_Of course it's Omega, and somehow I doubt Aria would kindly let us know where she is._ "Great. Is there anything we can do besides wait?"

"She has two days before I send Ghai, with Re'hat's entire team, to find her and her pilot."

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that."

We spoke for a while more after that point, mostly providing some more details on what had happened in the rest of the mansion while I was fighting in the garage. It didn't really provide me anything that Nynsi hadn't already told me, but at least I did finally get some confirmation that Rane'li had made it to the local hospital and was expected to recover. One of his other bodyguards, an Asari named Iyate, wasn't so lucky. She was being kept in a stasis field until she could be lifted off-planet to be taken to the Citadel for treatment. Apparently her family had the clout to arrange that, which he admitted to being thankful for.

"The surgeons there are the best in the galaxy. If anyone can..." all four of his eyes drifted downwards in pain. "..save her, it would be them."

"Never met her." I admitted, "But if you trust her, I'm sure I'd like to at some point."

"I believe you and she would get along well." A small smile showed his sharp teeth. "I will keep you updated."

"Thanks.. mind if I go track down your niece?"

He waved a hand in permission, "And before you sleep, if you could forward me an estimate on how long it will take for your armor to be repaired?"

I held back a wince at the thought of getting back into that exoskeleton again, but nodded politely before heading out.

My legs carried me through the halls, my eyes barely noticing the mixed Batarian guards and Asari cops moving around. A few offered quiet words as I walked past, which I vaguely returned with nods. The cops were all local, and I didn't recognize any of them. Despite that, they acted much the same as the ones I'd met outside of Forever. Most gave me friendly grins, a few even looked like they wanted to slap me on the back.. or drag me into a closet somewhere to thank me for what I'd done in a more personal way. From the sounds I heard from one of the servant's passages as I walked past, someone was already enjoying that kind of thing.

The most serious post seemed to be outside of the doctor's quarters. Two Batarians I didn't recognize, probably from one of Xerol's other teams, stood with a pair of I-Sec agents, all wearing heavy armor and carrying shotguns. I'm not going to lie, the sight of the four of them standing guard over the place where Trena was being cared for did improve my state of mind a bit.

I finally found Nynsi when I got to the garage, directing several workers in clearing out the corpses still filling the place. A few more I-Sec agents were observing the process, their skycars idling outside the re-opened doors.

"Hey Nyn."

She whipped around at the sound of my voice, a grin splitting her face as I entered the room. "Cieran! I see that the detective allowed you to stay."

I blinked, "Is there a reason she wouldn't have?"

If she'd had eyebrows, I didn't doubt that they would have gone up in amusement. "How many times did I have to stop you from saying something that would have gotten you arrested the last time you spoke with her?"

"Totally different situation."

"I am sure it was." Though her tone that indicated she didn't believe that for a moment. "If you could wait for me, my Harath'krem, I have to finish up here before we can locate breakfast."

"Closer to a second dinner than breakfast.. I have to check out my armor anyways, your uncle wants a report on how long it will take to fix."

She gave me a slightly distracted nod, her upper eyes fixed on where two servants were bickering about who had bumped the other while they were carrying the fallen's weapons. "Cease your chattering and focus on the task at hand! Make sure those weapons are all safe before you hand them over to I-Sec. And preferably before you pick them up!"

The pair of them muttered their apologies as I casually strolled over to where the collapsed exoskeleton was still laying, wincing at the sight of blood covering most of the torso. Said torso was more scrap metal than armor really, the carnage round had wrecked damn near the entire plate system. The left arm and shoulder looked strangely intact, at least until I reached down and yanked some of the panels loose.

"Athame's... fuck." The entire left shoulder assembly was more wreckage than a collection of motors, and the elbow wasn't much better. If that wasn't enough, it looked like half of the artificial muscles on the upper arm had torn free of their mountings. One of them had probably been the cause of the cause of what had been pinching that arm.

_Still.. could be worse._

A quick check of the rest of the armor more or less confirmed that. Most of the actuators and motors had simply been knocked loose by the force of the impacts, and wouldn't take much to get back into place. I had more than enough spare parts laying around to fix the left side, the bigger question remained the shields.

"Must be a power leak somewhere.." I crouched down to regard the engine mount. "Either that or that asshole hacked them. Going to have to wipe the entire computer system and load the last backup from before he helped out." Which would also get rid of my entire HUD system.. which was going to be a pain in the ass to do on my own. And it would have to be on my own.. there was no way I was ever letting anyone else touch this armor again. Well, excepting Trena. And Nynsi I suppose, though I could hardly imagine her working on it.

"How long will it take to fix?" Said woman's voice broke me from my mental musings.

I shrugged, "A few days, week at most. Should be in better shape for a fight now that I know some of the issues with it."

"Good." she regarded the fallen battle armor. "You will not have any.. problems using it again?"

Honestly the idea of getting back into it unsettled me more than I wanted to show. I didn't doubt for a moment that the memories of being trapped inside of my own creation, paralyzed and unable to do anything but watch that needle lower would be with me for a while. But.. what else could I do besides suck it up and bear it? If things were about to get as bad as Xerol seemed to be worried about, I'd need it. Besides, if I hadn't been in the damn thing, I probably wouldn't have even lived long enough for Ullik to try and betray us. "I'll be fine."

"All right," her voice was gentler than normal, and it made me smile a bit. "Come, I can have some food delivered to my chambers."

I blew out a long breath before slapping my hands together and standing, "Sounds like a plan."

After making sure the thing was locked down, well, as much as it could be with half the armor plates on the chest broken loose, I offered Nynsi my arm and we departed.

"So.." I managed to work up the nerve to actually ask as we passed the doctor's suite's guards, "..are you really going to keep calling me your noble warrior? I mean, isn't it a bit soon for pet names?"

She laughed, apparently genuinely amused. "It isn't a pet name dear Cieran. It is a title."

"Meaning..?"

Her amusement trailed off into an embarrassed pause. "Meaning you are my Harath'krem. On Khar'shan, before we discovered the Mass Effect, the role of the Harath'krem was a noble one. They were those of lower castes, or even slaves, who had demonstrated uncommon nobility or valor in defending those above them, were named such. It meant that even though they were not of high caste, they received many of the same.. well, privileges. They would become bodyguards, advisers, or consorts of those who had elevated them."

"Huh." I thought that over as we walked. "So it was kind of a partial promotion. They kind of became a member of a higher caste, but were also part of the lower one."

"Yes. In more modern times, it is far more rarely used. The Hegemony's leading councils frown upon such.. advancements. It is usually seen among those like my Uncle and I, the few non-exiles who find ourselves in need of those we can trust." her teeth bit her lower lip gently before she continued, "Ghai and Iyate are both Harath'krem to my uncle. As a Patriarch, he is allowed to have two. Someone of my level would only be granted permission to have one."

"So you can give it to aliens? Wait.. you said it's  _my_ title, didn't you?"

"I.. may have asked me Uncle that you be named as such." her lower eyes glanced sheepishly at me, "He allowed it, and so informed Khar'shan. By Hegemony law.. you are my Harath'krem."

I tried to process that for a few moments. "So.. as far as your government is concerned, I'm your official bodyguard?"

Her hand squeezed my arm gently, "More than that. If we were to travel there, you would be treated as someone of my stature, rather than as a.. well, human. If we.. if we.. have to run, have to leave this world, it would protect you."

_Well.. wow._ Not that I had any desire, not even a tiny one, to visit Khar'shan or the Hegemony. Or to allow Xerol or her to head there. No way in hell was I going to allow them to end up indoctrinated with the rest of the upper crust of Batarian leadership, or worse, end up dead when the Reapers showed. Still.. it was a touching thing, that she'd actually gone to that length to make sure that her own culture would be  _forced_ to treat me better than some random human.

"I.. thanks." My other arm rose, my hand finding hers and squeezing. "I mean.. you're sure?"

Her voice dropped several octaves, going dark and husky. "Do you require another demonstration of how sure I am?"

My cheeks burned at the implication, and at the I-Sec agents walking down the hall towards us. I didn't doubt for a moment that she'd shove me up against the wall with or without them present. "Um..no, but thank you my lady."

"You know, there are a few advantages to you being my Harath'krem."

I licked my lips, "Like?"

"By caste law, you're mine now, Cieran Kean." Which was all the warning I had before she stopped, grabbed me by the arms, and pushed me rapidly backwards until I hit the wall a yard behind me. Her mouth was on mine before I could even make a sound, her strong tongue forcing entrance as she growled. Any kind of detailed thoughts fled my mind as her body pressed me hard against the wall, her hands firmly holding me in place as she practically attacked my mouth. Somewhere in the background there were whistles and cat calls, which grew louder when she slowly pulled back, her lips set into a firm smile. Her voice was low enough that the voyeurs wouldn't be able to hear, "It's important to know who belongs to who my Harath'krem."

"Oh." It was the only sort-of word that I was capable of making at the time, the rest of me was too busy trying to remember how to breath.

She helped me get moving again, her arm snaking around me as she led me on. The three I-Sec agents were all grinning massively at us as we passed, and I was pretty sure that at least one had taken pictures. Or worse, a video.

My brain finally resumed receiving enough blood to function once we were nearly at her quarters. "Nyn.. um, when you said  _belonged_  to you.."

"You are not my slave Cieran," a hand patted my cheek, "I know how you feel about that kind of thing. Say instead you are my.. vassal. I am responsible for you as much as you are responsible for me now."

A bit of a sullen note entered my voice as I finally had a few moments to work through just what she'd said earlier. "You know.. you could have asked me about all of this first, instead of doing it without me knowing."

"Would you have said no?"

"I.." I hesitated. I  _felt_  like I should have said yes there. We still barely knew each other, having faced battle and death together or not. More than that, my own past was.. well, it could really fuck things up. But when I tried to say the word, my throat closed up, as if my body was refusing to let me make a last effort to not become..  _officially_  with her. "Well... no."

"I did not think so." She stated primly, making sure that I was still secure next to her, before hastily covering a yawn with her other hand, her eyes blinking furiously. "Dammit.."

"Stims wearing off?" I was surprised by how disappointed I was.

There was a sullen growl in response, and she began to lean more heavily against me as we walked. "I hate taking them. The crash is always.." another massive yawn. "..too sudden."

Which probably meant I didn't have long for the world of consciousness either. I'd only taken the one, and it had been.. really, four hours ago now? Huh. Well, at least I wouldn't have to be awake and stuck thinking about all the shit that was on the way. Or that Trena was still in surgery. Or that Aethyta was still incommunicado. Or that Nynsi had done.. whatever it really was that she'd done, and I didn't doubt for a moment that there was more to it.

By the time we made it to her bedroom, she was having a hard time standing, and could barely mumble out asking me to help her. I ended up doing most of the work of getting her armor off on my own, leaving her in the loose fatigues beneath them. I'm pretty sure she wanted me to remove those too, but she actually drifted off while sitting on the edge of her bed before I could really think about that. After helping her lay down, and managing to get her under the blankets, I set about my own armor. Once it was off, I firmly closed the shutters around her window, and slowly climbed into her stupidly comfortable bed.

To my regret, it was a while before my own stims wore off, and I stared long and hard into the darkness, trying to make sense of the sudden changes in my new life.

And, more importantly, how I was going to survive them.

* * *

**Next up is Chapter 5: The Word**

* * *

**Author's Facts - Pronunciation:**

**_Iyate → Ee-yah-teh_ **

_Harath'krem_  -  _Hah-rath, krem_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not going to lie, this chapter was rough. I ended up getting two pages in, scrapping it, then four pages in, the scrapping it yet again, then finally writing this. I'm still not quite comfortable with it, but hopefully it works all right as a bridge to the next chapter. All the same, there's quite a few things happening here, some of which are far more important than they might be at first glance. We can add them to the general confusion that continues to cloud most of what's happening beyond Cieran's POV.
> 
> This chapter was supposed to be followed by a time skip, but that's getting postponed for now, there's too much happening in the here and now that need some resolution. So the hour-by-hour day-by-day story pacing is going to get sped up a bit starting in the next chapter, and will keep moving at a bit of a faster clip for a few chapters.
> 
> I am enjoying the batarian culture angle, and hopefully people can catch onto some of the undertones I'm trying to establish there.
> 
> On another happy note.. massive thanks to everyone who has followed, reviewed, and favorited this story. Over a hundred reviews and more than fifty favorites in just a few weeks since I started, and only fifteen chapters in.. thank you all very much, I hope that this story continues to meet your expectations.
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat
> 
> PS. Working fifty plus hour weeks, three weeks in a row now, bloody well sucks. Writing this fic is the only thing keeping my sanity.


	17. The Word

  _I don't own Mass Effect, nor will I profit from this story._

* * *

  ** **Chapter 5: The Word****  

* * *

 

All in all, I was still exhausted when Ghai woke me up in the early afternoon with news that Trena was out of surgery. Nynsi was still apparently exhausted enough to sleep right through the Asari commando shaking me awake, and murmuring what was happening. Leaving her to continue sleeping, I slipped out of the bedroom after Ghai, opting to change in the living room so I didn't accidentally knock something over.

“So,” I spoke through a massive yawn as we walked through the now quiet halls, “She's all right?”

“Lives.” my companion murmured, “All right.. bit much.”

That drew a wince. “How bad?”

“You'll see.”

“Great.. I-Sec still around?” I glanced out a window as we moved, but apparently a storm had rolled in, and all I could see was sheets of rain drumming the grounds.

“A few.” there was a pause, “Most gone. Arson raid.”

“Sounds bad.”

“Apartment building for low class Asari. Xerol owns it.”

“Fuck.. did Re'hat manage to save the place?”

“Yes. No dead. But many wounded.” A very quiet sigh, “Hospital full.”

I nodded, blowing out a quiet breath at that. At least Re'hat was still doing good work, though I had a feeling we'd be seeing if the other squads were just as capable pretty soon. I stopped asking questions after that, which Ghai seemed grateful for, and elected to stay silent as we approached the doctor's suite. The I-Sec agents had left, but had been replaced with two more Batarians. All four gave us respectful nods as, which we both mirrored, before stepping aside to let us in.

“Ah, Mistress Ghai. Master Kean.” Apparently word of my new.. _position_ had spread quickly, because the nurse gave me a far more deferential bow of the head than I'd have expected. Her voice was quiet, even though the chambers were emptied of the wounded that had been there in the morning. “Miss T'laria will be glad that you have come, she woke a few moments ago.”

Ghai grunted something that might have been a thanks, and I made sure to enunciate my own more clearly before following the commando into he side room the nurse had indicated.

Trena looked.. well.. I couldn't stop a wince as I walked in.

“Good.. to see you too.. ape.” Her brilliant eyes were sunken, and her normally bright blue skin had taken an ashen hue to it. I couldn’t' even tell how badly she was injured beyond that because she was so tightly wrapped up in the blankets, but it did look like there was some kind of device resting near her stomach. It was boxy enough to throw off the contours, and cables were snaking out of that area. If all that wasn't enough, her voice was hardly as strong and resonant as it normally was.. she sounded more like Ghai than herself.

“Scales.” I pitched my voice low by reflex. “You doing all right?”

She chuckled slightly, “I'm alive.. that's something.”

Ghai gave her a mildly reproving look as she settled into a chair on the far side of her. I didn't miss the way one of her hands found Trena's, holding it tightly even if she wasn't speaking.

“Regenerator is still pumping.. medi-gel into me,” Her eyes flicked down, “Asshole got me.. good. Gonna need.. someone else to crap.. out kids for me now.” Ghai and I both winced, and her hands clenched tightly. “Nicked my spine..good too. Xerol says he'll get me.. a fancy assed cane like his. Doc says I should.. heal up in a decade or so. Damned..slow healing.”

My mouth twitched, “Always complaining scales. We humans couldn't fix that kind of thing on our own.”

“Heh. Suppose I'm lucky.. not born an ape then.” her eyes half shut as she took several long breaths. Ghai let go of her hand, quickly finding a long blue tube marked for water and brought it to her mouth. She nodded thankfully once she was done, regarding the pair of us in turn, her voice noticeably better after the drink. “I'm going to be down for a bit.. won't be walking for a month at least. Or limping I guess. Still can do shit from this bed though.. so I don't want you slacking off ape, or I'll have Ghai her kick your ass.”

“Wouldn't dream of it boss.”

“Good.” She let out another long breath, “Tell little Shaaryak the same.. she's going to have to back up Ghai now.”

Said woman started slightly, her eyes going wide at the implication.

“Don't care.. if you want it or not.” Trena shifted so her other hand could join the other in holding hers, “Need you.. now.”

The quiet commando sucked in a long breath before looking down. “Xerol... Aethyta.” Somehow those two words served in place of several sentences of information. It had to be something about her voice.. if I'd tried something like that, I didn't doubt that everyone would just stare at me like an idiot. But when she did it.. your brain just filled in the context on its own.

“Tell him too.. fucking bad. You're.. my replacement. Whether he.. or you.. wants it. Not going.. anywhere but the front.”

“I..” I couldn't see her eyes with her head bowed, but I could imagine them closing slowly in acceptance all the same. “..yes.”

“Good... don't be afraid.. to smack them around a bit. Even Xerol.. and especially.. this idiot.”

I rolled my eyes, “What is it with you and wanting to have other people beat me up?”

“Have to keep you humble.. ape. You deflower.. little Shaaryak yet?”

“Seriously scales?” I leaned against the brace alongside her bed, “You're guts are opened with a machine pumping gel into them, and you're wondering about my sex life?”

“So, didn't then.” She actually looked a little disappointed, but she smiled weakly when I flipped her off for the comment. “Get your ass.. back to bed ape. Look like shit.”

I couldn't help but snort, “Just so long as she isn't in the bed with you when I come back. Wait until tomorrow at least before you go at it. ”Trena chuckled weakly as Ghai flushed a bit. “Take care of yourself scales.”

“Not.. going anywhere.” she reminded me, a hint of pain in her voice.

“Are you kidding?” I made a show of rolling my eyes, “I'm going to put money on you trying to sneak out by the end of the third day. If not sooner.”

A bit of her old spark came back, a smirk dancing across her face. “Get out of here ape.”

Two of my fingers rose to my brow in an abbreviated salute, which I ruined my yawning again as I left her room. Making sure to hit the controls to close the door behind me, I hesitated a long moment before walking up to the nurse, now seated at a little terminal in the corner.

“Miss. I don't suppose you could forward me her injury list?” All four of her eyes blinked rapidly, and I quickly tried to explain myself. “I mean, it's Trena. I want to be sure there isn't something she's not telling us.”

She chewed on her lip nervously for a moment, then slowly shook her head. “If it were Mistress Nynsi I could give you that information Master Kean, but as it's Miss T'laria.. she would have to agree.”

I resisted the urge to pinch my noise in irritation. “All right, guess I'll have to get it out of Ghai later. Thank you all the same.”

“I.. yes Master Kean, thank you.”

The way she hesitated at that made me wince. Apparently whatever title I'd just managed to get, entirely without my own input, was enough to make her nervous about saying no to me. _Great. Cieran Kean, terror of nurses.. memo, find out what the hell this means for me._

Quietly wishing her a good day, I slipped out of the medical suite and into the empty halls. I took my time heading back to Nynsi's rooms, probably spending too much time staring into the rain as I did so. Everything that I'd managed to suppress in my whole four hours of sleep was rising back up. Eventually I just had to stop when I was outside of her door, instead leaning on the windowsill opposite and staring out at the storm.

_So.. dammit. Trena is alive but she's not going to be fighting anytime soon. Aethyta is MIA. No word on what the fuck Nynsi's parents are doing. No idea if I-Sec is siding with us, against us, or going to stay mostly neutral. And I have no fucking idea idea if what I'm doing is even the right thing.. I mean, am I blowing up canon already?_ I bit my lip slightly before rubbing furiously at my eyes, _Does that even bloody matter?_

My hands dropped to the ledge, _How long until the Matriarch finds her Chosen One, or some other test dummy, and bothers to get more details out of them then she got from me? How much can I risk changing things?_

I didn't particularly _want_ to screw with the universe's path that heavily. Not yet at any rate. I mean, was I smart enough to actually improve things? Or would I just fuck things up? What if something I did brought the Reapers here _early_? What if I started off some random-assed butterfly effect that caused the Citadel and Terminus to go to war? When I'd been working as Trena's assistant, those questions had simply been academic. Amusing distractions to think about, but not particularly important in the long term. But this.. I mean, in the games, you never heard about any Eclipse/Blue-Sun gang war on Illium. Was that just because the codex didn't go into the history like that? Or was it because it never happened?

_Careful Cieran.. you think about this too much, you're just going to go insane. Focus on what you can do, and what you have to do. You have to live. You have to help the people who are your friends now._ A long breath misted the glass slightly. _Try and avoid the big things for now, until you know more.. and just do what you can._

“Awake I see.” Xerol's calm voice interrupted my mental conversation, his cane thumping lightly with each step he took.

“Trena's awake, but I'm sure you already know.” I gave him a side-long look before returning my gaze to the rain.

“Yes.” The sound of his movements grew closer, stopping only when he stood beside me. “I am glad that she will eventually recover, even if it will take time.”

“Yeah.. could have been a lot worse, that's for sure.”

“If he had aimed a half inch to the left he would have shattered her spine.” I started at that, wincing at the idea of her paralyzed from the waist down. “An inch up or down and one of her major arteries would have severed. She would have bleed to death long before Ghai could perform first aid.”

“So.. lucky then.”

“The Pillars, or perhaps her own goddess, surely watched over her.” There was a quiet sigh, “Though I must admit to hoping that both will guide us in the weeks and months to come.”

“I'm not much of a believer.. of any kind really,” I admitted, reaching up to rub the back of neck in discomfort, “But I think I'll take whatever help we can get right now.”

His voice turned dry, “Indeed, Harath'krem of my Niece. Though I can hardly blame you, given your relative youth in terms of your mind. Perhaps Nynsi will be able to explain the Pillars to you later. At the very least, it will aide you in understanding our people, even if you do not accept their wisdom as your own.”

“Yeah, well.. we'll see I guess.” I wasn't really comfortable with this conversation. Faith and I had always been.. distant from one another, and the idea of converting to an alien religion wasn't one that I was really keen on. Even if I did rather like the few sayings that I'd heard so far. “Reminds me, I also have to talk to her about this whole noble warrior thing.”

There was a long chuckle, “It does not surprise me that she did not ask you about it first. Her heart has always been a bit faster than her feet.”

I turned and blinked at him in confusion.

“Ah, I believe the human expression is.. she leaps before she thinks.” _Ahhh._ “She protected you with what she did, but she also made your life far more complicated.”

“Not sure I can do with more complications.” I gestured out the window. “Khar'shan Minor is about to come under siege, and I'm up to my neck in involvement in what's basically a gang war. We can't get into contact with Aethyta, who is the only person who could tell us reliably where we could attack as well as keep I-Sec off our backs. Oh, and if that wasn't enough, I'm marked for abduction and death by your brother because I danced with Nynsi at a party and we liked each other. Pretty sure I'm full up on complicated.”

He threw his head back in full bellied laughter at that, “Ah, my dear Mister Kean.. you have had an interesting first few months of your new life, have you not?”

I couldn't help but laugh too, shaking my head at the sheer insanity of it all. “That I have.”

A broad hand clapped me on the shoulder, “Regrettably, I must tell you that no one is ever quite 'full up' on complicated, but know that you have made some friends who will stand by you through this all the same.”

“Friends?” My lips twitched into a smile, “Wasn't it just a week or two ago you were about to blow me up?”

He turned it back around on me with a question, “Would I have allowed you to be named my niece's Harath'krem if I still did not trust you?”

“I suppose not.”

“Indeed. You performed quite well in both of the battles, but more than that, you never once gave me a reason to pause. There were countless ways you could have betrayed us, or harmed us through what might have seemed to be negligent acts. But you did not.” His four eyes stared into my unfocused pair, “But we have digressed. Your questions as to the title you now hold.”

“Yeah..” I turned, leaning a hip against the window's ledge and covering a yawn with my hand. “She said I was her.. bodyguard, adviser, consort. Her vassal. But it didn't seem like that was all of it.

There was a long nod, “Those are true.. in part. It is a rather nebulous position, restricted only by the familial laws that govern such things. I have not seen fit to change the Shaaryak dynasty's view on such things, nor do I intend to, as that would involve an arduous trek to Khar'shan and countless meetings with foolish councils I simply do not wish to bother with.”

He turned his own gaze to the rain, thumping his cane thoughtfully. “A bodyguard and adviser is closest to the truth. As my own Harath'krem advise me on Asari culture and matters, you will be entrusted to guide her in humanity's. Should the occasion call for it, she might also request that you spend time with your own people to learn what you can of their opinions on our family and its business.”

_So, add part-time spy there._ “That doesn't seem terribly complicated.”

“That portion is not, yes. But remember, Cieran,” I started at his use of my given name, “Our culture is Patriarchal one. Nynsi is exempt from many things that most Batarian women of her station would be.. pressured not to pursue, because of circumstance.”

“Because we're not in the Hegemony?” I guessed.

“Partially. That is why you have seen women fighters amongst my people, I do not have the resources, or see the point, in maintaining such a system. Our women are stronger than most species men, after all.” I chuckled slightly at that, and he also gave a temporary grin before seriousness reasserted itself. “But for her, she is also my only heir, and even in the Hegemony, that gives her more power than most.” he gave a long sigh, “It is also why your naming as her Harath'krem is complicated, and why it may drive my brother to greater acts against you.”

I was starting to see that. “Let me guess. I'm human, which is a huge deal for most Batarians. On top of that, I'm the bodyguard to the sole heir, a _female_ heir, of what your making sound like a very old and prestigious high-caste family.”

“All are true.” He admitted, his cane turning slightly in his grasp. “But among the Shaaryak, the Harath'krem have a long history of being the.. consorts of their risers. In the old days, it was a means of ensuring new blood into the caste and family. In more modern eras, such as my grandfather's time, it was considered the proper way to keep a mistress or lover.”

“Oh.. crap.” I had a good idea where this was going. “So her parents, who already want to abduct me because they thought I was _dating_ her, are now going to want to eviscerate me because they'll think I'm..”

“Yes.”

“Well fuck.”

“It is also why I wish for you to repair your armor as quickly as possible.” for the first time since I'd met him, he seemed unsure of himself. “Perhaps allowing her to name you such was a mistake. But it is not something that I can now take back. All I can do is ensure that you both are protected, and that you are in the best position to protect her.”

“I will.”

“You will.” his lower eyes found mine. “I cannot ask for you to swear by the Pillars, or a god, but I will ask that you offer me your oath in this.”

I sucked in a breath, nodded, and brought myself up as formally as I could in my wrinkled shirt and pants. “I won't allow Nyn to get hurt, or killed, while I'm capable of doing something about it.”

“Good..” his voice trailed slightly, his shoulders relaxing minutely. “Now I must go and speak with Captain Vasir yet again. Hopefully we will be clear of her people in a week or two, and will be able to properly interrogate our guest then. I never would have expected myself to be regretful of her gratitude, but it seems that I find myself in that place.”

“Heh.. yeah. Here's to hoping that works out for us..”

He turned away, but paused after just a few steps. “Harath'krem of my niece.. I must ask. How involved are you with her?”

I had to gulp slightly at my suddenly dry throat. “We're.. getting there, I think.”

“I see.” There was a long pause. “I cannot fault you for that, not when I was.. close to one of my own Harath'krem once, long ago...” He seemed to shake himself free, an almost wistful tone fading back into his normal manner. “I will see you in the morning with her for breakfast, Master Kean. And I expect impeccable manners. You are considered Highborn now, after all.”

“I.. yes sir.”

“Good.”

I watched him leave, hardly daring to move until he'd vanished out of sight around a corner.

_Well.. damn.. just when I thought I was getting a good handle on things.. you know what? Fuck it, I'm not worrying about all of this now. To bed._ I kicked off from the wall, and quietly slid into Nynsi's chambers.

“Cieran?” Her tired voice greeted me when I ghosted into the bedroom proper, a blast of lightning outside illuminating her reclining form.

“Yeah, it's me.” Not bothering with changing, I slid back into the bed, almost groaning at the pure comfort of it. “Sorry, Trena woke up. And had a long conversation with your uncle.”

There was a soft yawn before arms slid around me, warm breath tickling my neck as she pulled me closer. “She alright?”

I winced slightly, sliding an arm under her, “No. She'll live, but she's going to need a cane to walk for a few decades.. and that's the tip of it. Still has a regeneration machine running on her guts, and her.. well.. her.. she's sterile now.”

The arms around me tightened imperceptibly, but did so all the same. “Well, at least she is an Asari.”

“Yeah, there is that.” I sighed contentedly as she placed a few soft kisses onto my neck, “Ghai stayed with her.”

“Mmm?” Teeth brushed against my skin, and I shivered slightly. “They do seem to have become rather close.”

“Probably a good..” She bit down gently, and one of her hands slid across my chest and down to my stomach. Fingers tugged my shirt up enough that her fingers could drift across my abs, the gentle touches making me half close my eyes in pleasure. “..thing.”

There was a quiet growling noise before she let go. “Do you think it's.. strange, that they.. and us, I suppose, became so close?”

“So quickly you mean?” I turned my head, nudging her chin with mine so I could nuzzle my face into her neck. She smelled.. different, but not in a bad way. Dark, earthy tones mixed only slightly with sweat. “Is it as strange as naming me your Harath'krem?”

“I..” She growled again, her neck vibrating slightly as I gently brushed my teeth over her skin, alternating between kissing and nipping at her thick skin. “..no. Good things.. can happen quickly.”

I chuckled, twisting myself around enough that I could allow my own hands to wander her sides while I kept my head in place at her neck. “I suppose I can agree with that..”

“You suppose?” the warning tone faded when I firmly bit down, the hand on my stomach sliding to my back as her nails scraped across me. “Ah.. what's that..supposed to mean?”

My mouth pulled back enough so I could talk, “Your uncle told me a bit about the Harath'krem title.”

“Ah..” she groaned as my hand slid under her shirt, my fingers exploring her muscles as they flexed and relaxed under them. “Should I.. be worried?”

“I don't think so.” I shivered as her hand started tracing lazy circles on my back, her fingers exploring my skin. “But I'm apparently going to need... ah.. lessons in manners and your religion.”

There was a deep chuckle, which trailed into a gasp as I bit her again, her body arcing slightly against mine. “Keep.. doing that.. and of course.. you are.”

My own mirth was muted into her skin, my lips caressing her as I pressed closer. “Were you going to tell me about the Harath'krem's role in your family?”

“Cieran..” Nails dug into my back as I found a sensitive spot at the base of her neck“..you want to talk.. about that _now_?”

“If you like, I could just go to sleep instead.” A teasing tone entered my voice. Truthfully.. if she was as willing as she seemed, there was no way I was going to sleep at this point. Whatever warning voices that had once existed in my head to stop me from doing this had gone quiet. I still had no idea if we were going to, well, _work_ , but I was more than willing to give it a shot. And my hormones were going full blast at this point, firmly nudging my more paranoid brain out of the driver's seat.

Her growl was deeper this time, practically a primal thing that made her entire body reverberate. “You wouldn't dare.”

“Wouldn't I?” Another small bite made her shiver.

“It.. I already told you what it means.” she tried to twist herself around, probably intending to push me onto my back. I threw one of my legs around one of hers, shifting my weight onto her shoulder to keep her down. “ _Cieran.._ ”

“You didn't tell me about what they were to the Shaaryak.” There was a bit of rush as I purred the words into her ear, admiring the almost elfin structure in the dark lighting. “You left out the part of usually being the lovers of those who elevated them..”

“I.. you..” There was a gasp as I bit her neck again, her voice hitching each time I shifted position.. “..my Harath'krem. Yes.. usually.. traditionally... safest way to take a.. mmm.. consort. You are.. sworn to me, and I to you.. by the title.. Only a handful have ever betrayed that.. ah, trust.”

Huh. That was a bit more than Xerol had given me, but it did make sense in context. Inviting someone to your bed chambers was probably even more complicated for a highborn member of Batarian society than the average person, and you'd want to make damn sure that you weren't bringing someone untrustworthy there. But if they were your Harath'krem, your noble bodyguard, who probably owed everything to the person who'd brought them up from their lower caste..

Nyn took a few moments to realize that I was suddenly lost in my thoughts, but when she did she reacted at once. Kicking her leg free, she firmly pushed me off of her and onto my back. Her warm body pressed against me as she smoothly shifted above me.

“Are we done talking now?”

“Not going to explain Batarian affection to me?” My hands gently slid along her until I found her thighs, gently squeezing the thick bands of muscle, my worries fading again into the excitement of the moment.

She chuckled, looking genuinely amused as her upper eyes slowly closed. “You seem to be picking things up.. mmm.. quickly enough. Though I suppose I could help you along..” One of her hand slid back to take one of mine, guiding it up her thigh and onto her back. Small bands of what felt like cartilage were set in ridges over her spine, probably as some form of protection. Whatever they were there for, she mewled and undulated against me as I explored them, my other hand sliding up to help. They seemed to stretch from just below her shoulders to the base of her spine, more v-shaped near the top and bottom but closer to full arrowhead shapes in the center.

Things stayed like that for a few moments until I tried rubbing the thin band of skin between the ridges, which drew a long groan. I couldn't tell in the low lighting, but I was pretty sure that at least some of her eyes had rolled back. There wasn't much warning before she quickly leaned down, her teeth sinking into my neck as she growled. The mix of pleasure and pain made me gasp and shake slightly. _Ah.. so right here... then._

_“_ Anywhere... else?” It was hard to talk as she gently kept biting and sucking at my skin, moving up as I spoke until her mouth was at my ear.

“We're done talking Cieran.” Her body straightened up as she pulled her shirt off, the sight both familiar yet alien, and all the more enticing for the combination. I could see her lips pulling into a grin at my expression, her toned body almost gleaming as more lightning illuminated her.

“Done talking.” I agreed, reaching up to pull her back down to me.

Our mouths met hungrily, her tongue pressing my lips apart to duel with mine. Her hands ripped at my shirt, quickly jerking it up. The kiss broke as it passed over my head, resuming the moment the cloth was out of the way. Those strong hands started exploring my chest, running over the muscles I'd spent the last few months trying to build up.

I kept mine on her back, sliding them up and down the armor plates over her spine, occasionally pressing them into the skin between the bands. Each time I did she groaned into my mouth, and eventually her hands slid away so that she could press her skin to mine.

Her breasts weren't as soft as a human woman's, but the feel of them was familiar all the same. She broke the kiss with a long, hissing groan as my fingers dug into a particularly sensitive spot. But rather than ducking down to nip and bite at me again, she slid upwards, hands shifting to cradle my head and guide me to her chest.

Her small breasts looked like they were naturally supported with more of the cartilage plating on the lower halves, the lighter skin covering them providing an exotic flair. Hardly needing her insistent tugs, I let my lips trail across her flesh, kissing and nipping as she mewled contentedly. Fingers dug into my skin as I shifted across her chest, making sure not to leave the other unattended. One hand drifted up into my hair, playing with the strands as I explored.

My own hands drifted down, feeling thick muscles flexing in her sides before my fingers found her pants and started tugging firmly at them, exposing bits of skin as I tried to work them down.

Her chuckle reverberated in her chest, and she firmly pushed be back, teeth gleaming before she batted my hands away.

I groaned in irritation, which turned into a quiet moan as she started to slide down.. and started pulling my own pants down with her. But my lust fogged mind cleared a bit in worry as she exposed me entirely, her eyes tracing my shaft with appraisal.

The nervousness faded as she lowered her head, her dark tongue casually flicking at my tip.

There was a breathy laugh at my quiet gasp. Her technique was different from what I as used to, not that I was complaining. She never actually took me into her mouth, instead using her lips and tongue to almost massage me while her hands gently worked the muscles in my thighs. It didn't take her long to find the spots that made me groan with pleasure, but she bypassed them as often as she let her mouth drift over them.

"Nyn.." I couldn't help but say her name when she planted long kisses just under the head.

"Hush." she reminded me quietly, her hands slipping away, working at her own remaining clothing. There was a final long lick from the base of my shaft to the tip, a pleased little sound emerging as she glided her body back up. I tried to keep pulling her up so that I could return the favor, only for her to chuckle again and gently push my hands down, her fingers firmly wrapped around my wrists.

Her head shook slightly, her teeth gleaming in a grin as she pulled up just a bit more. I could feel her sex leaving hot trails on my skin as her upper eyes closed in concentration. Flexing myself a bit, and shifting my own hips, I managed to help her find the right angle, my breath catching as her heat started to envelope me.

There was a long moment of hesitation as she held me there, her head lowering until our mouths met once more. This time there wasn't any rush, her lips were slow and languid against mine as she started to lower herself. I groaned into the kiss, my entire awareness focusing onto the feel of her mouth on mine and the sensation of her hips coming to rest at my base. She was tight and hot, thought I honestly was too far gone to tell you if it was any different. All I knew was that it felt amazing, and that I wanted more.

We stayed like that for a long moment as she adjusted to me, pleased sounds emerging as she broke the kiss to pant into my ear. Cold air suddenly touching my skin made me gasp as she slid upwards, and her warmth made me moan as she fell back down.

It started out slow, but quickly began to speed up as we found a rhythm, my own hips rising slightly to meet hers. My groans grew lower and more intense when her hands lifted off of mine, shifting to my shoulders to brace herself as she moved. Not wasting any time, I quickly resumed touching and exploring. One returned to a sensitive spot on her spine, working between the shifting armored scales to find the skin beneath, while the other slid further down to grab her ass, my fingers digging into her muscles as they worked.

Her mewls and groans grew lower in pitch, her head burying into my neck as she started to frantically lick and nip at my skin. The walls around me began to contract and release in rapid succession, more slick heat falling over me as she went over her edge. Sharp teeth bit down again as a throttled scream made my skin tingle.

I almost growled as she slowed, shifting both of my hands down to her hips and firmly keeping them moving at a rapid pace.

Her mouth slipped free as she gasped, her entire body shuddering and writhing above me. "Cieran.. Cie.."

It didn't take me much longer. Her orgasm had brought me close, and her almost continuous gasps and moans as I moved her quickly brought me to my edge.

"Nyn.." It was all I managed to say before firmly pressing myself as deep as I could, my entire body tensing with my release. There was a long gasp as I spilled into her, her walls contracting again, though not as severely as before.

"Oh.. " Shaking hands cradled my head to her neck, more soft noises making her throat vibrate.

Her warm body limply rolled off of me once we were both finished, and we laid beside one another and tried to catch our breath.

As my brain slowly resumed functioning, I shifted a bit, letting me eyes fully take in her nude form. Her dark teal skin was marred in places with bands of a lighter color, each corresponding to ridges of what I was pretty sure were cartilage plates of some kind. Besides the undersides of her breasts, there was a longer plate vertically between them over her heart. Two more thin stretches made a Y shape from its tip, covering what on a human would be collarbones.

My gaze drifted down, over a heavily muscled and toned stomach that any human woman would have killed to own. Her sex was familiar enough, though it looked like it had its own small plates of protection on her pelvis and on either side. I tried not to notice our combined essence leaking slowly from her and let my eyes keep moving. Her hips and thighs had more of the natural protection, but the plates there were much larger, reaching from the tops almost down to her knees.

"Like what you see, my Harath'krem?" her voice teased, and I belatedly realized that she'd been aware of my visual exploration. Her dark lower eyes shifted slightly, returning to my face after their own bit of wandering.

"I could do with seeing it more often." my lips twitched, a hand stretching out to drift along her side lazily. "What about you?"

"You are.. quite different." she admitted, "But enjoyably so."

"I'm glad that I did not disappoint then." The hand touching her waist tugged her closer. It didn't take much urging, she shifted over quickly enough. One leg kicked out to wrap around my own, while a hand started tracing itself over my chest.

"I know we should go clean ourselves.." her voice trailed a bit as she nuzzled her mouth into my shoulder, "But right now I just want to be here.."

I pulled her closer, silently reveling in the feeling of being.. well, _wanted_ again. "That is more than fine with me."

And for a while at least.. things were less complicated in my life.

Naturally, it didn't last. Two days later, a few hours before Re'hat and his people were about to lift off for Omega, Aethyta slammed the front doors open with her biotics, carrying Trin's bloody form in her arms.

* * *

  ** **Next up is Chapter 6: The Monotony****

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heh.. so.. yeah, the Monotony got pushed back again in favor of news from Trena, a more in depth look into Batarian culture, and a bit of romance. And then a cliff hanger, because I just can't help myself.
> 
> This chapter was a little shorter.. mostly because it's basically an add-on to the prior one, and while I could have probably just put them both together, that would have ended up with just one giant chapter in the middle of the arc, so I'm rather glad it worked out this way then. It will probably result int his arc running a few chapters longer, overall, to fit in the coming action, but I don't think anyone will be upset about that. :)
> 
> We also start to see some references to the arc's title, and more genuine discussion about what's going on overall. Things will start to pick up pace after this chapter, I promise, there was just more that I felt like I needed to get out before that point.
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	18. The Monotony

_I don't own Mass Effect, nor will I profit from this story._

* * *

**Act II: Chapter 6: The Monotony**

"Get V'Rae up here, and get the I-Sec medic as well!" Xerol barked, quickly moving forwards to help support Tris, and permanently staining his white suit as he did so. Nyn gave him a quick nod before dashing off, her omni-tool flashing to life as she moved."I want an alert out at once!"

Aethyta grunted as some of Tris's weight was lifted off of her shoulder. The Matriarch looked like hell, even without the blood all over her gray armor. There were deep circles beneath both of her eyes, and she had the jerky movements of someone who'd been operating on just stims and caffeine for a long time. "Nice to see you got those lazy security types actually doing work."

"We've had.. an eventful few days. Though it looks like you could say the same." our host admitted as they carefully laid the former bartender down onto a bench. If Aethyta looked like hell, Tris looked like she'd gone there on vacation and gotten spat back out after they were done with her. She was still moving, slightly, which was.. good, I hoped.

I didn't know the first thing about medicine, or first aid even, but.. Tris was sort of a friend. She was someone I knew and had joked around with in the months leading up to all of this. "What do you need me to do?"

"Get your ass over here," Aethyta jerked her head, "And help me put pressure on her. No not there," armored hands grabbed mine roughly and redirected them to a bloody spot just above her leg. "Here. Press down like this and don't stop until the doc says so dammit."

I nodded quickly, trying to breath through my mouth, trying to focus on what my hands were doing and the feeling of her muscles straining with each breath.

"Out of the way Matriarch!" a new voice butted in, Aethyta vanishing from beside me as a purple skinned Asari in I-Sec fatigues practically slid to a halt. "Athame's.. what have you given her so far?"

"Three canisters of medi-gel and two vials of painkillers, standard issue commando spec." Aethyta, for once not a trace of bitterness in her voice, summarized quietly as the medic got to work.

"Good job human, keep holding there until I say so. You, Batarian, out of the way." Xerol backed away as she pressed two fingers under Tris's jawline while her other hand rummaged through her belt before pulling out a medi-gel canister. "Your doc on the way? Good. I need two more medi-gel cans, a regenerator, and a full run of antibiotics."

I swallowed heavily as she worked, quickly ripping off the shattered bits of armor to access the wounds directly. It wasn't like what was left was helping her any regardless, it was more memory than armor. Her right arm had been badly burned from the elbow to the shoulder, and another burn trailed from the base her neck, across her right breast, and down to her stomach where it met up with a pair of neat little holes dribbling blood as I tried to keep the pressure near them. Aside from that, there were a dozen more minor wounds across her arms and chest, usually coinciding where her armor and been the most damaged. Probably from grenades or other debris pelting her.

"Dammit." Medi-gel was being spread liberally over a bullet wound in the center of of one the burns, I hadn't even noticed it until she started spraying the stuff right into her. "Matriarch, my bag, should by a hypo-needle. Grab it. Good, give her the full dose at the base of her neck."

Aethyta did so without a word, quickly jabbing the small device's needle in the designated spot and shooting the yellow liquid into her veins.

"Soon as the doc gets here we need to get her stabilized enough that we can move her for surgery. It's a miracle of Athame you didn't kill her carrying in here." the empty medi-gel container was tossed aside, "Human, you'll be pouring gel right into those wounds. Soon as it starts to solidify you can back off."

"Yes ma'am." I nodded quickly, licking my lips and trying not to smell her scorched flesh.

"Status!?" V'Rae, her long white coat billowing behind her, practically sprinted into the entrance hall, Nynsi and her Nurse both laboring to keep up as they hefted containers of supplies.

"Three major impact sites, two burns, several dozen minor wounds. Rounds were definitely coated in something, administered.." I tuned out the medical conversation that followed, focusing instead on the container that the nurse quickly handed me. Using my teeth to pry it open, I started applying it as rapidly as I could without spilling it all over the place. Once that was done, I tossed the canister onto the floor and focused on keeping my hands in place again.

"Thank you Master Kean." Doc V'Rae nodded appreciably a few minutes later, gently pulling my hands back as she inspected the wounds. "We have her now."

"Oh.. ok." I stumbled back to my feet as two more I-Sec agents quickly slid a stretcher under her, the medic and doctor speaking rapidly as they headed for her chambers. The nurse quietly murmured a few words to Xerol, then nodded at the pair of Asari before leading them and the stretcher they carried in the same direction.

_Dammit. First Trena and now Tris.. who's next? And what the hell happened?_

"Cieran?" Nynsi voice was hesitant as a hand gently touched my arm. "Come on. We need to get you cleaned up."

"I.." I turned around, startled to see that almost everyone else had already gone. It was just us and an I-Sec officer standing guard at the door left. "Where did Aethyta go?"

"To speak with my uncle and Ghai." The concern in her voice deepened, her lower eyes flicking up and down me. "You didn't hear them leave?"

"No.." I admitted, glancing at my bloody hands. "Dammit. I wanted to hear what happened."

"I'm sure we'll be told." Her hand tugged slightly, "Come, standing here won't do you any good."

I let out a long breath and nodded slowly, "Yeah. Ok. We need to get armored up anyways, right?"

There was a bit of hesitation, "Yes, we do."

"Nyn?"

She gently slipped her arm through mine and started walking, pulling me along until I managed to match her pace. "You aren't at your best now, my Harath'krem. It might be best if you did not."

I blinked rapidly, my eyes flicking between both of her pairs. "And get shot to pieces when the mansion is attacked again?"

"No, of course not.. I only meant.." There was a hissing sigh as she looked away from me, "Cie, I don't want you going out on combat runs until your armor is repaired, all right?"

"What's wrong with my normal armor?" I wasn't liking where this conversation was going. "I did spend quite a bit upgrading it, and I thought I did pretty well at the warehouse."

"Up until you were almost killed." She shot back, "Against those gang kids, fine, you can handle yourself. But you've been.. well, alive for less that four months now. You aren't up to fighting veteran mercenaries like that. In your powered armor you have a chance just because of the protection it provides."

I had to fight back a wince at the blunt assessment. The worst thing about it is that she was entirely correct and I knew it. I wasn't a combat hardened ex-soldier like most of Xerol's security team, nor did I have years of training like Nynsi probably did. I had a few days on the shooting range, a couple of shootouts with teenagers too stupid to find real guns and armor, and the only times I'd run into people as well equipped as I was, I'd come close to getting killed. All I really had was a young life filled with playing video games and studying military history for fun, not because I actually expected any of the information about fighting to become pertinent to me staying alive.

"I'm not hiding in a corner if we're attacked her." It was really the only counter point I could come up with.

She leaned over and kissed my cheek softly, "You know I wouldn't go that far."

 _So. New plan. Find a way to turn three weeks of estimated repair work into two._  To my own regret, after thinking over the fallen scrap pile that was my power armor, I'd had to revise my repair times up. I could have had it where it was in a week, but that wouldn't do me much good unless I wanted similar problems to happen again. And with Trena out of commission.. I'd been thinking three weeks was optimistic as it was.  _Need to reinforce the joint armor, increase the clip strength where the artificial musculature connects, find the damn power draw from the eezo core.. fuck, this is going to be a rough stretch._

We reached her chambers while I was lost in my thoughts. I quickly excused myself to the bathroom, where I spent too much time scrubbing at my hands and throwing my bloodied shirt into a bin. By the time I was done, and my hands were slightly raw, Nynsi had already changed into her under-armor clothing and had her boots and leg plates in place.

I was just grabbing my own set from where it waited at the foot of the bed when Xerol's voice echoed from my omni-tool.  _"Everyone stand down. I-Sec intercepted two shuttles full of True Sons on their way here. They were likely trying to follow Aethyta' shuttle from Omega, and there were enough explosives on board, without the approved paperwork, to put them in jail for an Asari lifetime. Captain Vasir is doubling our guard, and is on her way here to speak with the Matriarch. Che'hat, Marn, I want both of your teams out into the district on patrols just in case someone else is out there and decides to try for a new targets."_

Nynsi rose her omni-tool up as soon as he finished, "Uncle, what about us?"

 _"You both may remain here for now. Regrettably I have little news that I can give you yet, Aethyta is not being terribly forthcoming."_  There was a pause,  _"She has confirmed that the Blue Suns are behind the creation of the True Sons organization, and were responsible for getting them their legitimate title. She needs to consult with the records keepers on the Citadel before she speaks on anything else."_

I rolled my eyes. That was hardly the ground-breaking news I was hoping for. Still, it might be enough to keep I-Sec off of us and onto them if she had evidence to back it up. Legally speaking the Blue Suns had no vested interest on planet so far as I knew, and I really doubted that they would show up as official corporate sponsors on the True Sons' paperwork. Proof that they were behind the planet's most hated gang wouldn't put them on anybody's friends list, not even Xerol's political enemies would want to be seen even pseudo-supporting them right now. Hopefully.

"We understand Uncle. Do you think she will be able to give us the freedom to interrogate our prisoner?" Her former butler was still cooling his heels in a storage chamber, kept under guard by Marn and her people at all times. He was being given enough food and water to live, but not much more than that. According to the taciturn team lead, he'd already started to crack, and would probably tell us anything we wanted if we could just get I-Sec off of the grounds long enough to wring him out.

There was another long pause, probably as he conferred with said Matriarch.  _"She will speak with Vasir about rotating her people into the district proper over the next few days, and allowing her to help us in managing the mansion itself. He will keep that long."_

Her fingers flexed slightly, and her upper eyes narrowed in irritation, but she nodded all the same. "Yes uncle. Please let us know if you find anything else out."

 _"Stay out of trouble, if you please. I will contact you when it is time for our evening meal."_  Her omni-tool flicked off as he broke the connection.

I quietly removed the armored leggings I'd managed to get on before the call came through, making sure I didn't take my pants or socks with them. "It's not your fault Nyn."

She growled darkly. "I should have known he was a traitor."

"You couldn't have," I tossed them back onto the pile and regarded her seriously. "Not if he was any good at his job."

"His  _job_." she spat, starting to pace, apparently not caring that she was armored from the waist down but wearing only a loose shirt on top of that. "Was to serve the Shaaryak family. His ancestors served this family. And he betrayed us. Betrayed our Partriach. I want to kill him. I want to kill him and leave him out in the gardens as an example."

Standing up quietly, I took a few steps to get into her way. "And what would that solve? Would that really serve as an example, or would it just scare the hell out of your other servants?"

"It would.." she growled again, looking down and shaking her head. ".. he needs to die Cieran. He betrayed us."

"And he probably will die for that." I agreed quietly, "But we need the information in his head more than we need him as a corpse right now."

Her head titled up so that her upper eyes could stare into mine. "I hate it when you're right sometimes."

"Harath'krem." My lips tugged into a small smile, "Remember?"

"I do." And I belatedly realized I was still shirtless when she reached out to trace one of the bite marks she'd left the night before. Most of the bruising from the combined shotgun round and biotic impact had faded, only for new ones to appear on my neck and shoulders. "I very much do.."

"Nyn.." Her touch was light enough not to hurt, my skin tingling as her fingers moved. "I should go to the doc's chambers.. wait for news on Tris.."

She stepped closer, her other hand reaching up to play with my facial hair. I was still keeping it in a fairly short goatee, but she seemed to like it all the same. "They wouldn't let you in, and the nurse would simply remove you if you tried to wait there."

Which was also true. The human tradition of sitting in hospital waiting rooms until the doctor came out with news was very not much in either Asari or Batarian cultures. The Asari thought it a bit ghoulish, especially if you didn't think they were going to live, and the Batarians thought it was a waste of time. "I.. yeah.."

Her hand on my neck slid down, wrapping around my waist as she pulled me closer. "You can't still be nervous about being with me. Not after the last few days."

"It's not that.. it's just.." For a second I could see the red all over my hands again, and feel her straining to breath.

Fingers paused as she let out a long breath, "Sometimes I forget how.. young your mind is. That you haven't seen or dealt with things like that before."

I leaned in, resting my forehead against hers as I closed my eyes. "Sorry."

A hand touched my lips gently before sliding down to rest above my heart. "Do not be. I named you my Harath'krem for a reason. Now, enough of this. You have too much on your mind, and I believe it is my duty to help you clear it."

The familiar taste and touch of her lips on mine followed quickly, and I let myself relax into her arms.

* * *

Tris lived. Barely.

Doctor V'Rae and the I-Sec medic were able to stabilize her enough that they could transport her to the main hospital in the district, which kept her for a few hours before having a shuttle lift her to Nos Astra. Two of the shots that had hit her had released a Salarian made poison into her system, one that specifically tried to short-circuit her nervous system. She'd ended up going into arrest twice during the transfer process as her body seized up, preventing her from breathing.

And while the news that they'd administered the antidote, and that she would be all right in the long term was welcome, not much else was.

Aethyta had barely stuck around for an hour after her hush-hush conference with Vasir before leaving. She had taken a few minutes to assure Nyn, Ghai, Trena, and I that she wasn't keeping us in the dark on purpose, she just needed time to 'get this fucking shit straight in my brain, because half of it makes no goddess damned sense at all'. After telling us to follow Xerol's commands for now, and that she'd have tasks for us later, she'd lit off for her place in Nos Astra.

Worse, while Vasir very much wanted to pull her people out of the mansion and put them back on patrol, there was pressure from her bosses not to. Aethyta had tried to muscle her way in there, using her position as a Matriarch to point out that they had no real legal reason to stay now that the attack and its aftermath was over with. That had served to get the numbers greatly reduced, but as Xerol was a 'person of interest' in the still mysterious warehouse showdown, they insisted that they had the right to keep a few agents nearby.

Between their continued presence, Aethyta's frequent absence, and my promise to Nynsi, the next few weeks fell into a routine.

I spent almost all of my time working on my powered armor. Without Trena, or anyone else really, to help me, it was taking longer than I hoped, but I was making progress. I'd repaired all of the internal musculature that had been damaged, and had also reinforced the connections to make sure that impacts wouldn't jar any of them loose again. The armor plating itself I left laying on the ground while I rebooted the entire operating system to clear out Ullik's sabotage, and eventually managed to get all of my screens back online. My hoped for two weeks, planned for three weeks, quickly stretched to hoping to be done in four, planning for five.

_Still.. as soon as its done, it will be at least twice as effective as before, and hopefully I won't have to deal with this much shit again._

When I was done for the day, I would track down Nynsi and join her for dinner. On slower days she or I would slip away to make lunch for each other, and retreat to her chambers to enjoy some peace and quiet for a while. Our.. relationship continued at night, at least when she wasn't out on assignment for either Ghai or Aethyta. I'd only been out twice on stake-outs, which were just as boring as you'd expect them to be. Just sitting in a shrouded air car, waiting for something to happen.

The True Sons and their masters were hardly quiet, though the attacks quickly grew infrequent as the gang members started to realize just how suicidal their jobs were. Che'hat's team had even found evidence that gang kids were starting to desert rather than follow orders to attack Khar'shan minor. Which definitely put them a few notches up in the brains department. Between our teams and Captain Vasir's I-Sec patrols, the district didn't quite have an armed guard on every corner but it wasn't that far off either. We still had to put up with the occasional drive by or attempted arson, but as far as anyone could tell that was just their way of reminding us that our little 'war' was on-going.

It was about four and a half weeks later that we finally got some good news.

"Nyn, what is it?" My head was stuck inside of the chest plate of my armor as I considered the best way to attach the new plating.

"Aethyta needs to see us." My Thar'shan, which was apparently the appropriate term for a female holder of a Harath'krem's loyalty, sounded happier than she'd been in a while. Both Ghai and Xerol had been keeping her at the mansion more often than not, only requesting her help when several squads or Ghai herself needed to head out. "In the eastern conference room."

"About time." Wiping my face off with a rag, I hurriedly locked down the armor. "She finally going to tell us what happened on Omega?"

Some of her happiness faded into irritation. "No. She received a confirmation from Thessia about her ability to command I-Sec units as it pertains to her work. She is ordering the agents on the grounds out of here so we can interrogate  _him_."

"Ah." Still mostly good then. "Let's go then."

An hour later found us in the same side-room where we'd watched Xerol talk to our first guest, though there were a few changes. He was now in there with us, and an extra screen had been brought in so that Trena could observe both them and us. Ghai had elected to be there with her, probably to make sure she didn't start throwing things or ripping anything out like she'd done the first time the Doctor had tried to let her get up and walk. Which just left me, Nyn, and Xerol present to watch Aehtyta work.

He had opened the interrogation with polite threats and apparent remorse over what he would have to do. She opened it by biotically slamming the former butler around the room a few times, still tied to his chair, stopping only when he started screaming for mercy. Which didn't really take long; he wasn't much more than skin and bones dressed in rags at this point.

I wasn't particularly surprised at her choice, she'd been on edge every time I'd spoken with her. Although I still winced at each bounce, nodding slightly when Nynsi rested a hand on my arm.

"For the love of the pillars stop!" he was practically sobbing in pain from where he'd landed the last time, tipped onto his side. "I'll tell you whatever you want! Please!?"

Aethyta didn't bother responding verbally, settling instead for a disgusted sneer as she casually stretched out a glowing arm. His floating form drifted to the ground, his sobbing intensifying a bit as he tried to curl up but couldn't.

"You know what you did. I want reasons."

"I.. I don't have anything against Asari!" he was practically blubbering, "Nothing against Asari!"

"Yeah. Tell that to the woman you shot in the back. I'm sure she'd love to hear it."

Trena's mouth twitched slightly on the monitor, but she didn't say anything.

"I.. I panicked all right! I was just trying to get out.. I thought they were going to kill me for screwing it up!"

The Matriarch made a  _move-it-along_  gesture.

"Right.. right.. I.. Chacksin Shaaryak contacted me a few months ago. He said Xerol was.. was losing it. Was letting his nostalgia get the best of him. That his time had passed, that the family needed to be stronger now than it ever was before." He gulped heavily, a touch of a new emotion bisecting his fear. "I mean.. I didn't really believe him. He'd just gotten exiled permanently after all. But then.. that.. that  _human_  showed up. Danced with Miss Nynsi. Kissed her. And he just.. stood there and let it happen!"

The hand on my arm tightened in anger, and it was my turn to carefully put my other hand over it.

"I.. I had to do something. She's the only heir apart from the twins.. and they aren't from the main line anyway. I couldn't sit there and let her get corrupted. Chacksin.. left me a way to contact him. I did.. told him what happened at the ball. And after. He told me.. he told me he was glad there were still Batarians who knew how to act properly."

"So. You gave up Kean's address. Hired Ullik when that failed. Why let in the True Sons?"

"Yes.. I did... they weren't' True Sons. They were Blue Suns.. undercover.." he sucked in a long breath, almost looking like he was about to stop there. Aethyta let her body begin to glow in warning, and the words resumed tumbling out. "They were going to take Miss Nynsi to her parents. He said a beautiful woman like her shouldn't be wasted on a human."

"How would he know?" Nynsi practically snarled, "They haven't seen me since I was born."

"Did you tell them she was hot?" Aethyta began pacing around his form, like a shark circling a wounded animal. "Or did you provide evidence?"

"He.. he asked for pictures. Not inappropriate ones!" he hasted to add when one of her feet struck the ground harder than the other, "Nothing like that! Just ones of her dressed like a highborn lady. I sent the ones from her formal dress.. he said they'd help with her suitor.."

" _Suitor?_ " This time I had to put a hand on her shoulder to keep her in her seat. "Are they trying to sell me off like some common  _whore_!?"

I was also suddenly conscious of how very still Xerol had gotten, and how pale his hands were as they clenched his cane. It suddenly made a whole lot of sense that Aethyta was the one asking the questions, if either one of them had been in there he'd probably have been beaten to death before he even managed to get out an answer.

The Matriarch glanced at the glass, her eyes narrowed in warning. "I need names. Details about this suitor. Contact information for Chacksin. Did he pay you?

"I.. I don't know his name.. I.. heard his wife say that they.. the union would move the family up in the Blue Suns.. set them up to help take over soon.. that's all I know about that!"

"The rest."

"Yes.. um.. please, you have to promise me that you won't let them kill me! Please! I'll tell you everything else!"

"It's not Xerol's call to let you live or to kill you. It's mine." Her massive arms crossed her chest. "I suggest you remember that and keep talking."

"Everything I could access.." he gasped, rocking back and forth slightly. "They paid me for each business I knew about.. off world accounts so he wouldn't.. know.."

He gave it all up quickly enough, almost gratefully spilling everything after they called in the nurse to bind up his leg. They'd communicated from a public terminal at a nearby restaurant, by text mail, and only on certain days of the month. Voice calls needed at least a month's warning so that they could secure it. He was even kind enough to give us the password to his omni-tool which contained all of the proper signs and codes to send a message. The account was on the Citadel, and had more than a hundred thousand credits quietly building interest. Xerol quickly re-routed one of his business agents from Nos Astra to clean it out and transfer it all to one of his private funds.

"Ullik.. the mechanic. They gave me the money.. to bring him in.. to back me up. I don't think they trusted him much, he was just supposed to deliver the human. I don't know of anyone else they were talking to here.. too many are under Xerol's sway, still acting like it's two centuries ago."

"I think that's all we're going to get." I murmured. I'd had to shift behind Nynsi during his explanation, guiding her to a chair and gently massaging her neck and shoulders while her nails dug into the arm rests.

"I agree." Xerol stared hard at him as Aethyta slipped out of the room, locking it behind her. "Trena?"

" _You're asking me what, Xerol_?" her voice was hard. " _I hope to the deeps it's not whether or not he should live. That's fucking obvious_."

"Indeed it is. The question is how you wish to deal with him. You, of all of us, were the most wronged by his acts."

There was a short pause, " _Ghai will handle it. She's on her way_."

"Very well." letting his cane rest against his chair, he brought up his omni-tool, probably to make arrangements to dispose of the remains. "After Aethyta and I will head down to speak with you about planning our initial counter strikes."

"More than that." The Matriarch tossed the door open, looking exhausted and irritated with life. "That talk confirmed a few things for me. I'm sure they'd do far worse to him if they found out what he told us. Little Shaaryak, Kean. You're both in as well. Figure it's time I come clean with you all."

" _About fucking time_." Trena flicked off the video on her end without another word. I was guessing it was just the feed to our room that she'd killed, I didn't doubt that she would watch Ghai end the man's life.

Aethtya just snorted and leaned against a wall to wait.

"She has not been in the best of moods lately." Nynsi observed quietly, her eyes still locked onto her former assistant.

"You wouldn't be either if you were stuck in a hospital bed. At least she's closed up now. Again." I pointed out, smiling slightly as her muscles finally started to relax.

"Yes.." her voice trailed off. "Harath'krem. If my parents were here, now. Would you stop me from killing them?"

_"Worry not if you harm the damned, for the third pillar shall absolve you of their pain and lift your soul to the skies."_

"Ninth tenat of the Third Pillar." her voice quieted slightly, a small smile on her reflection in the mirror. "I didn't think you were paying attention."

"I had ample motivation." I pointed out, though anything else I was going to say faded as the conference room door swung open, Ghai moving quickly through the doorway.

"Mistress Ghai..? No.. No!" The former butler began to flail, desperately rocking to try and escape his binds. "Please, no! I told you everything! Please!"

Ghai didn't bother responding.

She covered the distance between them in a few heartbeats, drew her small pistol, checked the safety, leveled it, and fired a single round.

* * *

**Next up is Chapter 7: The Return**

* * *

**Author's Notes: The Pillars of Strength**

_As Xerol said earlier in this arc, the five Pillars of Strength are:_ _Power,_ _Knowledge, Heart, Kin, and_ _Unity._

_Each has their own set of sayings, tenat's, and mantra's that will crop up here and there. Though like human religions, interpretations will vary wildly amongst the various Batarian cultures and castes. For example, someone writing propaganda in the Hegemony will have a very different idea of what the Pillars of Power and Unity mean in comparison to, say, Xerol Shaaryak, merchant patriarch on Illium._

_And while people in positions of power might view the first, second, and the last pillars as the most important, a laborer-caste mother of four would tend to view the sayings from pillars three and four as the most important to her life._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, we're finally starting to get some answers now, a trend that will continue a bit in the next chapter, along with the preparations for the long awaited strikes against the True Sons on their own turf. Whether or not Cieran will be along for the ride given the state of his armor, we'll have to wait and see.
> 
> This is actually the third re-write of this chapter, as I had a hard time managing the passage of time in addition to everything that needed to be said. I do apologize a bit for the summary paragraphs, but sometimes they're simply unavoidable.
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	19. The Return

_I don't own Mass Effect, nor will I profit from this story._

* * *

_**Act II: Chapter 7: The Return** _

"All right, everyone's here, so let's get shit started." Aethyta couldn't really pace inside of Trena's pseudo-hospital room, so she'd settled for leaning against the wall across from her. Ghai and Xerol had the only chairs by virtue of them being.. well, who they were. Nynsi and I were stuck standing near the closed door.

"Good." Trena grunted, adjusting herself as best she could while Ghai watched her like a hawk. "Because all I got out of that asshole was that little Shaaryak's parents are even bigger tits than I thought."

Nynsi gave a little sound of displeasure at that, but let Aethyta speak.

"If you're all here to here some epic story about how Tris and I survived on Omega, you're going to be disappointed." Broad shoulders shrugged, "We were there for three days, got jumped on our way back to our shuttle to get out of that shit-hole. Assholes jumped us with fighters on the way out. Lost our comm systems, shields, half a dozen other systems. That's when Tris got the burns. Patched her up as best I could and we limped our way back here."

Xerol shook his head slightly, "Do you think they were looking for you?"

"Probably." Her lips twisted in irritation. "I wasn't able to cover our tracks as well as I'd have liked, especially after hitting their recruitment station."

We all perked up a bit at that, Trena in particular. "You took out a True Sons recruitment post?"

"If by 'took out' you meant I tore those idiots apart with my biotics and stole all their information, yeah." And she did look pretty pleased with herself. "Someone was stupid enough to leave a pipeline to the Blue Suns servers. I got a terabyte before they realized what was happening and cut it. Most of it was garbage about Tarak's operations there, not shit we actually care about. I traded it to Aria, that's probably where they picked up our trail."

"By most of it, you mean there was at least some good news in there." I pointed out.

"Something like that, Kean." her omni-tool flashed to life as she checked over whatever data she had. "How much have you lot already figured out?"

For some reason everyone glanced at me. "Why is everyone looking at me?"

Xerol's upper eyes rolled slightly. "Because you seem to have a talent for analysis and logical reasoning. I have some of my older contacts quietly looking into whether or not there is an intelligence agency missing an agent right now."

Well.. that was a little creepy, not that I could blame him. Even after our little talk about trust, it still made sense for him to see what he could find out. But from Aethyta's suddenly sour expression, I'm guessing he wasn't supposed to tell me that part. "Oh. Right then."

I spent the next ten minutes catching up Aethyta on our theories about exactly what the merc group and their gang patsies were up to on Illium. She mostly refrained from interrupting, only asking the occasional question to clarify how I or we had reached a point. For the most part she agreed with our reasoning, confirming bits and pieces with she'd gotten out of Aria or what she'd gotten on her own. Once we were past the recap, I moved onto what I'd been thinking about since we'd interrogated the butler.

"Our guest said the True Sons who he was sneaking in weren't actually from the gang, that they were Blue Suns. Given that the gang was founded by the latter, I'd feel safe assuming that most if not all of their regulars are actually Blue Suns on undercover assignments. Which.. could be bad. Unless you happened to figure out how many are here?"

"Maybe a hundred."

I blinked. "Well. Could be a lot worse."

She shrugged. "The more they try and slip in the better the odds Sederis or I-Sec picks one up and makes them talk."

"Point." One of my hands rose up to rub at my face, "And they just lost a good dozen of them here. If their leadership has any sense at all, they'll keep keeping them back like they have been. Probably guarding whatever center they're using to rehab those slaves before they cart them off for sale. That would keep pretty much everyone who we'd want to capture to make them talk in one spot, at least until they get in enough reinforcements to hit us again."

"And they're working on that part." Aethyta grunted, letting her eyes slip off of me to hit Nyn and Xerol in turn. "Chacksin is rotating troops to Omega. His wife is screaming her head off for help here, especially with how well you lot have held out this last month."

"Wait," Nynsi took a step forwards, her voice low and dangerous. "My mother is here? On Illium?"

"And how do you.. you left a hack in their system." Xerol nodded slowly, finishing his own question.

"I did. And yeah girl, she's running the operation locally while your hero of a father ran the recruiting stations in the Terminus." Her arm shifted, letting her wrist mounted computer project information for us onto the wall. Most of it was numbers and locations, looking like there were units spread out across that region of the galaxy. "He's got another hundred or so, figure a full company. Mostly his own species, he's got a serious issue with both Asari and humans."

Xerol grunted. "Alliance Corsairs killed his best friend five years ago. The Asari bend is new though."

"His best friend was your ex-wife." Aethyta apparently felt the need to get him back for slipping up about his looking into my background. He didn't seem bothered by that, though from everyone's reactions it seemed like I was the only one who wasn't already aware of that little thing.

"She was running guns through Alliance space. I told her what would happen before she left." his cane turned as he regarded it with his lower eyes. "I told Chacksin as well. They went anyway. His ship made it, hers did not. Rather than accepting his own culpability, he continues to blame humanity for defending their own territory. But it is hardly germane to our discussion."

"It establishes motive." the Matriarch pointed out, "If Kean turns out to be AIS, or goddess forbid, a Corsair here on leave.."

I winced. Not that either was true of course, but even the idea being planted into people's heads would make my life a bit.. difficult. The Corsairs were.. well, they were the boogeymen Batarian mothers warned their kids about. If people thought I was one, memories of those times or no, most of the tentative work I'd done to establishing myself in Xerol's community would be shot to flames overnight.

Nynsi shook her head, "Even if that turns out to be true, it would not matter. A human touching me would be enough for him. But he is not the problem right now. My mother, however, is."

"Little Shaaryak has it." Trena winced as she leaned forwards, waving away Ghai's concern. "We need her, or one of her direct subordinates, alive. Toss them in front of Sederis and let that insane bitch handle the rest."

"Or in front of I-Sec." The rest of us glanced at each other uncertainly at that idea. Aethyta just rolled her eyes, "Look, Vasir's got her head on straight. We get them to her, that will let us bring in some Justicars to clean house."

"Literally." Trena muttered, "Even odds on them cleaning us out too. Didn't you say a Spectre owes you a favor?"

"A favor is relative when it comes to Spectres girl. I might convince her to show if she's got time, but odds are it'll be the Justicars." She rolled her eyes when Xerol winced. "You haven't broken any real laws, have you? Killed anyone who didn't deserve it? No? Then you'll be fine, grow a damn quad. Now. The wife. She's at least brought in Asari, and there's been plenty of humans in her regular teams. Marital problems?"

Nynsi shrugged, and we all glanced at Xerol. "Unknown, I have not seriously spoken with either of them in years. They seemed content enough with one another, both were ambitious enough for anyone's tastes. It is possible that he is well aware of her actions, and accepts it in the name of their mutual advancement."

"Like marrying me off." Nynsi growled, and I reached out to brush her arm gently.

"Well, you're apparently a looker by your species strange standards. And human standards I suppose." She eyed me before shaking her head, "Slept with a lot of species in my life, but never could get past the eyes... whatever. You think trading you for power would work?"

"Not in the Terminus." she shook her head, some of the anger turning to confusion. "I mean, a pleasure slave is hardly expensive. Batarians, Asari, Human, whatever. Even the more.. attractive options would still be far less costly than paying mercenaries to try and capture someone from an armed compound in Asari space. Trying to abduct me to sell me off only makes sense if they've got someone else in mind."

Xerol grunted. "Someone in the Hegemony. Any children my niece has would be the heir to the Shaaryak clan. We still have substantial holdings on Khar'shan, currently delegated to middle-caste relations that I'm allowing to run them. If she were to have a male child, and if I were to die, whatever suitor they have in mind would be allowed to name himself as the official guardian of the family until his son's majority. He could then seize all of those assets back, or at least demand more direct tribute than the small cut that I take."

"How much we talking?"

His lips twitched. "If the Hegemony rejoined Council space, my combined assets would be sufficient for me to reach the list of top ten wealthiest individuals on world."

Well. Holy fucking damn then. That much money.. no wonder his brother was pissed off about being cut out. The top ten list of wealthy people on planet was pretty much confined to the kinds of people who could buy and sell planets. No wonder the Hegemony had rescinded his exile.

"Athame's fucking ass." Aethyta shook her head, "You never told me you were that loaded. Dammit. That hardly lowers our suspect pool."

"They would have to be highborn. Merchant caste is a possibility, but so is the warrior caste." His cane thumped hard onto the floor. "None of the others have leave to conduct themselves outside of the Hegemony, and the merchants are limited in what they can do. If it is a warrior.. that may clarify some things."

I frowned, trying to work out the logic, and failing. "What do you mean?"

"The executive board of the Blue Suns consists of two humans and one Batarian, and Dal'serah is by far and away the weakest of the three. Santiago controls the finances, and Vosque commands their fleet. Without them, Serah is left only with troops and no ability to pay them or move them, and most of the aliens would desert him in a heartbeat if he tried to seize more power. Most of our own people probably would as well." His eyes tightened. "But consider the impact it would have if two senior commanders in the Blue Suns suddenly had a direct connection to the Hegemony's military forces, never-mind the financial resources they would be able to draw from both Illium and Khar'shan."

"They'd.." Trena shook her head, "Fuck. They'd be the strongest damn merc outfit in the galaxy. And probably turn into little more than another branch of the Hegemony's damn fleet. Those two humans would probably be assassinated within a day or two by the damn SIU, and I'm sure we can all fucking guess who'd replace them."

Both of my hands rose to run through my hair as I tried to process that. It made sense in context, once it was all out there. Especially with what I could remember about the Blue Suns from the games. Santiago was a real asshole, but he was still the only major merc leader besides Aria willing to hire Batarians. Now it looked like that was going to bite him in the ass. Which would have been fine, except.. "Fuck is right scales. I mean.. give them a couple of years to train them up a bit, transfer some assets around.. they'll have a disposable army that they could throw at whoever without the Council wanting to take on the Hegemony itself. Combine that with their plans here.. "

"They go hand in hand." Xerol nodded slowly. "Breaking the Eclipse in their stronghold disrupts their largest rival. Getting an inroad with the Hegemony's military doubles or triples their direct power, and would let the Hegemony expand the operations in the Traverse and Terminus while still retaining the strength to go after their main target."

"Humans." Ghai grunted, her head shaking. "The blitz. Restart it. Better. Get the Verge back."

_Well.. fuck. I really stepped in some shit this time? And how the fuck did this turn out in canon? There's no way this is all happening just because I happened to be here.. right?_

"Right, enough of that." Aethyta pushed off from the wall, regarding us all. "That's not going to happen, because we're not letting anyone get sold off. We're going to track down your cunt of a mother, and we're going to end their damned plan here. Once that's done, I'll help you deal with Chacksin."

"Isn't that going a bit beyond your orders?" Trena pointed out.

Aethyta rolled her eyes. "Those old tits on Thessia can bite me. I helped get you all into this shit, I'm helping you back out of it. I don't leave crap like this unfinished."

_Well. That's good then_.

"So. How we going to track Nyn's mother down then?" I asked quietly. "We're going to need a lot of intel to track that center down on a planet like this."

"Which I'm going to handle. What I need from you lot is to start taking the war to them, make them sloppy, give me more to work with." She turned from me to look at Ghai. "That's on you. Giving you what I managed to pull from Omega and what my girls have found in the last few months. I want them to scream, got me?"

"Got it." Our new war-leader rasped. "Trena. Helping?"

"Of course I am." Trena reached out and flicked her paramour on the forehead with a finger. "If you think I'm just going to sit on my blue ass and let you handle this shit, you haven't learned a damn thing in these last few weeks."

Ghai knocked her hand away, but there was a small smile on her face all the same.

"Enough pillow talk you two." For the first time since she'd gotten back on world it seemed like Aethyta let herself be amused. "Seriously. I'm gone for a bit and all you kids are shacking up. Kean's got fang marks on his neck," I flushed slightly, and Nynsi quite pointedly looked at nothing in particular, "And I see those marks on your arms T'laria." Trena was far less abashed than us or Ghai, merely offering a wicked little smile. "Should have figured you'd find a way, even in a damned hospital room."

"What can I say, she's got some talented ha-"

"We do not need to hear that part." Xerol quickly cut in, all four of his eyes pinched shut while a hand rose to rest against his forehead. "Aethyta, may I speak with you in private before you leave?"

"Why not. Take care of yourselves kids." We all murmured our own goodbyes, and I at least felt a lot better about things this time. Well, at least until I caught Liara's father eying me as she left the room.

_Oh.. yeah. You kind of forgot about the fact that she doesn't trust you all that much thanks to your bullshit background, didn't you_. I bit my tongue slightly.  _Well, let's hope that Xerol can put in a good word for me._

* * *

Two days later, well after sunset, found Trena and I sulking in her hospital room.

We'd been joined by Marn for a while, who was also being left out of the day's operations. The unlovely Batarian woman had been even more annoyed than we were, because she had the added bonus of trying to break in new squad members to replace the two men she'd lost. That probably wouldn't have bothered her as much if not for the fact that her replacements weren't Batarian. Instead, Aethyta had turned up this morning with a trio of Turians who had been among the slaves we'd rescued from the warehouse transaction. All three looked better than they probably had been, but still weren't up to their species usual lethal norm.

"You got all the damn feeds set up ape?"

I rolled my eyes, settling into my makeshift lounge. I'd grabbed both of the chairs in the room and arranged them so I could sit on one and comfortably rest my feet on the other. "I'm sure I've got the damn feeds setup scales."

The feeds in question were six screens haphazardly setup on the far wall, each corresponding to a different set of helmet cameras. Of course, four of those were pretty superfluous. I pretty much was focused entirely on Nyn's, and Trena's eyes rarely strayed from Ghai's. Of course, so far as anyone else knew, the screens were there so that Trena and I could work on planning the next attack operation on a series of warehouses containing weapons and drugs.

I'd helped Xerol's staff setup the main feeds to the western conference room earlier in the morning, so that he and Marn could observe the assault and record specific viewpoints for examination later. As far as I knew, nobody had noticed the subroutine I'd slid into the main computer that kicked copies to our little setup here. Which was a good thing, because I was sure that pretty much everyone that we knew would blow up quite a bit if they found out that we intended to watch.

_Blow up? Nyn kicked you out of the conference room and said she'd beat you senseless if you did. And Ghai would sick Xerol on Trena, and then he'd yell at me for enabling her and going against my Thar'shan_.

Ghai, along with Trena and Xerol, had come up with a fairly ambitious plan. Given what Aethyta had given us, the former commando had picked out six separate targets, with the goal of staging a hit and run assault on each of them. Two were automotive shops owned directly by the gang, one was an apartment block that had at least thirty of them living there. The remaining three sites were all bars, the kind of dives even Trena wouldn't have set foot in. All of the teams had had the point hammered home that collateral damage wasn't going to be tolerated, not with I-Sec still breathing down our necks.

"How long until V'Rae lets you try walking again?"

"Tomorrow." Trena irritably yanked a Batarian style pipe off a medical tray, flicking it until the auto-igniter kicked in. "When's your armor done?"

"Few days." I frowned at her. "Since when do you smoke?"

"Since I got stuck in this fucking bed. Blame Ghai. She thinks it calms me down." She rolled her eyes at that, giving the the thick tube a long puff, sending a cloud of vanilla scented smoke into the air. "Don't bother asking what the Doc thinks about it."

"I can imagine." And I could. It had become clear over the past couple of weeks that the tall Asari doctor had a massive temper, especially when it came to her patients disregarding her instructions. Which of course meant that she and Trena got along about as well as you'd expect, even without this new addition.

A few more puffs did seem to help her relax a bit, "How long we got?"

"Any minute now."

"You got audio right?"

I rolled my eyes. "Seriously scales, you got the audio, remember? Please tell me there isn't something wrong with your damn brain now." A hand shot up to wave away the cloud of smoke she irritably blew at me.

"Bullshipt ape."

"Yeah, I got the damn audio." I stuck my tongue out at her because I'm just that much of an adult. Any further serious conversation dropped away in favor of us insulting one another, which wasn't as fun as it would have been had we been at Forever and just relaxing after a hard day's work.

" _Ghai. Apartments. On station_." We both shut up when her voice growled across our omni-tool's speakers. " _Sound off_."

" _Shaaryak_ ," Nynsi's smooth voice sounded even more like liquid after Ghai's rasp, " _Observing the mechanics shop, two workers in sight have True Son tats_."

" _Re'hat. Bar one is packed with gang members, in uniform_."

His brother chuckled as he spoke, " _Che'hat, so is bar two_."

" _Bar three is quiet. Setting up to observe_." Horthan sounded disappointed at the lack of obvious enemies.

" _The body shop is closed, but definitely people inside_." Chom kept her tone cautious, " _Trying to get an angle to ID them_."

" _This is Xerol. I confirm all squads ready. You may proceed when ready my Harath'krem_."

Ghai grunted. " _Horthan. Chom. Confirm enemy. Others. Move in_."

From that point on, shit happened quickly. It was.. actually the experience reminded me the most of watching other people play Halo. The standard Batarian HUD layout wasn't all that different from the setup in Bungie's magnum opus, aside from the alien lettering. Nynsi's short range pistol rose into view as she drew it, holding the cannon in a double-handed grip as her team quickly moved across the deserted street. For this occasion she was actually leading Yrrich's team, since he was confined to his quarters with some kind of flu.

I quickly keyed my own omni-tool's speakers to her feed, while Trena did the same for Ghai's. " _You two, lead us in. cover left and right. I'm in next, then you. Sharpshooters stay out here, we'll get the doors open as soon as possible_."

Six helmed heads nodded quickly, two of them staying in the street proper and taking cover behind cars.

" _On Three_." I couldn't help but hold my breath in anticipation before watching an armored foot slam open the rickety door.

" _Batarians_!" Somebody screamed, making me wince and quickly dial down the volume. And then cut it down some more when gunshots started roaring.

At least there wasn't any question about them being in the right place. There was a good twenty people present, none of them Asari, and almost all bearing gang markings on their clothes or their skin. Nyn sprinted in, head whipping left and right before she fell into a slide that carried her behind a desk. The owner was already down, his chest a red mess of blood, and she irritably reached out to toss the body aside.

" _Theis! Get those damn doors open_!"

" _I'm on it, i'm on it!_ "

Both of her arms whipped back into view, laying out onto the desk to brace before she started firing. The usual gang level quality of shielding was evident, because each round that hit, which was most of them, sent flesh and blood flying into the air. She managed a half a dozen shots or so before running out of targets, the surviving enemies firing wildly with just their weapons exposed as they hid.

" _Hey! What the hell do you lot think you're doing here_!?" One of them shouted, most of the gunfire slowing into an impromptu-ceasefire. " _Do you have any idea who owns this place_?"

" _My mother_." Nynsi shouted back. " _And I'm killing her next_."

" _You're.. what_!?"

Any further conversation was mute because Theis apparently managed to override the garage doors. Her head turned left as the motors started to creak, six battered metal walls rising upwards to expose whoever was left.

" _Prisoners ma'am_?"

" _Unnecessary_." I frowned at that. Not that most of these guys didn't deserve to get killed, but she hadn't hesitated for even a second. " _Finish them_."

Going to have to talk with her about that.. my job now anyway.

The rest of the fight passed without anything of note. The marksman quickly dropped the survivors with their carbines, Nyn never had to fire another shot. I cut the audio entirely when she started directing her people to yank every bit of data they could before getting ready to depart.

"How's the apartment fight going?" I flicked my eyes over at Ghai's screen in time to see a Turian collapse screaming as a biotic warp tore through his guts.

"About over." Trena gave a thoughtful puff of her pipe. "Aethyta's intel was dead on, pretty much everyone in there was a True Son. Figure they cleared out thirty or so. And looks like you were right too."

"About what?" I started to bring up the commands to shut the feeds down. The entire thing had taken maybe five minutes, which both surprised me and didn't. When you were actually in combat, it felt like forever. But when you watched it like this.. you realized just how bloody fast it all happened.

She pulled her smoking stick out of her mouth and waved it in vague permission. "The regulars. The fucking Blue Suns I suppose. Nobody's spotted them at any of the targets."

I grunted, glad that she'd at least been able to give cursory attention to the other attacks. "That's probably a good thing. Last thing we'd have wanted today is to hit a team or two of them with only a half dozen or so of us at each target."

"Yeah." With a sigh she put out her pipe and tossed it back onto the tray. "You got any bright ideas on the next set of targets?"

"Not really." Relaxing a bit when my omni-tool pinged programs complete, I switched our screens to what we were supposed to have been doing to start with. "Three warehouses, figure two teams each. Besides that.. just regular Asari built warehouses spread out in the manufacturing district. Way smaller than the last one we hit."

"Think one could be a ringer for the rehab center?" Wincing slightly, she shifted herself up, twisting left and right to stretch out a bit. "Not a bad place for it."

"Could be.. plenty of traffic wouldn't be unusual. I don't think so though." I waved a hand. "Those areas see pretty high break in rates. Last thing they'd want is some drifter seeing what they're up to and telling his friends."

"Damn, was hoping that was just me thinking that."

We sat in silence for a while after that, occasionally one of us would flick the screens, halfheartedly trying to find some genius plan. After maybe ten more minutes we just gave up, leaving it for the full meeting on the subject tomorrow.

"You ever find out what Xerol and Aethyta talked about?" I made sure to check that the door was closed before I asked that aloud.

Her eyes flicked to the door as well before she nodded slightly, pitching her voice low. "Ghai brought me up to speed yesterday. She reamed him out for giving you that title, and for not waiting for her to get back so she could finish investigating you."

I winced, both at the words and at her tone. As far as Trena was concerned, I was trustworthy, and I really had no memories from before I'd shown up at her door. Which made me feel like a wretched piece of shit, but there wasn't much I could do about that.

"He snapped back at her, that you could have done plenty to sabotage us, and that he wouldn't have given you your title if he didn't think well of you." she growled quietly. "She wasn't thrilled about that, but he mollified her a bit after. Told her the details of him looking into your past. Not that he expects to find anything. I think she's doing her own digging."

_Not that she'll find anything either_. Still. It was a bit strange to be under the microscope again. Got a bit too used to life in the mansion over the last month and a half.

I shook my head and blew out a breath, "Well. No sense worrying about that."

She blinked a bit in surprise. "You sure ape? I could talk to her for you."

"I'm good scales." I leaned back, glancing at the time, wondering how long it would be until Nynsi got back. "Let her dig. If she finds something.. hell, maybe we might get some answers."

"Be nice." My friend admitted. "Especially to get some out of someone that's not that.. other old hag."

_Yeah.._  I'd done everything I could to not think about the Matriarch and what she'd said and done. And I firmly intended for that trend to continue for as long as possible.  _No point in worrying about it.. and if I did, what could I do? Stress out? Freak out? It's not like I'd be able to actually do anything. Even if I knew where she was, she'd kill me before she answered any questions._

"You're worrying again ape." A blue hand reached out to gentle bump my shoulder.

I snorted, reaching up to respond in kind. "One of us has to. Try not to piss off the doc again, all right? Sooner you're up and around the sooner you can help with my armor."

She rolled her eyes, but smiled a bit all the same. "Fucking typical. Just want me to be healthier so you can make me do your work for you."

"You know it scales, you know it."

"Do me one favor at least." A hand waved at the screens. "Give me a feed to your armor when you get it running. Even if I manage to get up and move around they're going to keep me in here for another damn month at least. Need something to keep me from going fucking insane."

I arched an eyebrow,"If Ghai comes after me, I reserve the right to drag you between us as a living shield."

Trena barked out a laugh, but nodded. "It's a deal ape. Now get out of here, can't have your woman coming home to an empty bed, can you?"

"You mean you want me gone so that Ghai can join you in your bed." I swung my feet to the ground all the same, shaking my head as I smiled. "Try not to have too much fun scales."

"No such thing Ape. No such fucking thing. See you in the morning."

"See you in the morning." I echoed, then turned and headed out, hoping that Nynsi's heavenly bed wouldn't lure me to sleep before she returned.

* * *

**Next up is Chapter 8: The Flank**

* * *

**Author's Fact for the Chapter:**

_There were two possible identities for Nynsi's suitor. I ended up writing full outlines for both possible paths, and ended up going with the route that I did because of the opportunity it gives me to really screw with Cieran's life._

_Oh, and I guess it also lets me do a more interesting way of starting the butterfly-effect that his existing will have on the ME-verse._

* * *

**Because the Author is happy with the followers and reviews, here's a second fun fact:**

_I'm not sure how clear this is, but thought I'd make it so. In this story, Cieran is not playing with a full deck. He doesn't have a copy of the Mass Effect wiki in his head, or have every detail from all three games, and the books, and the comics, and the movies memorized. I'm attempting to write the story as if he'd last played the game more than a year prior (as I have)._

_Minor spoiler for way the hell down the road: For example, someone mentioned the Arrival DLC. He knows that the DLC happens, and the general outline of what occurs. But he's got no idea what the doctor's name is, or the system the Alpha relay is in, or when it occurs relative to ME2._

_My rule of thumb is this: If I have to look it up, he doens't know it. Other characters might, and that can help jog his memory. He may even get things wrong from time to time, which may or may not cause issues down the road._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, here we go. Quite a bit of information here, and the start of some pseudo-action. We have some more theories and conjecture, mixed with hard data for once, about everything that is happening. Now as we move forwards, we're going to see what their plans are to stop it. Things are going to start heating up pretty soon here, as both sides start to turn this from a relatively slow paced war into a full fledged one.
> 
> For those wondering about Nynsi's suitor and parents, hopefully this chapter revealed a bit about both. All three of them will become rather pertinent as the story goes on, and their motivations will impact both the Blue Suns and True Sons, as well as Xerol's own people and even I-Sec and Aethyta's group, so expect quite a bit of fun to happen.
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as “I enjoyed it, please continue.”
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	20. The Flank

_I don't own Mass Effect, nor will I profit from this story._

* * *

**Act II: Chapter 8: The Flank**

Three days later I was buttoned up in my power armor, the computer systems compensating automatically for the movements of our shuttle. But even the uncomfortable sensation of the suit shifting my body randomly to maintain its balance was a small price to pay for finally being out on a mission.

And not a stake-out of some damn alleyway or a crappy bar, an actual bloody mission.

" _You there ape_?" Trena's voice echoed quietly from my speakers.

"I'm here scales." I kept my voice low so that my microphone wouldn't broadcast it. "You have sight?"

" _Cameras are transmitting the inside of a shuttle filled with swearing batarians_." there was a soft chuckle. " _So yeah, I've got sight. Remember your job_?"

I snorted. "Be a big, distracting target to keep fire off of our guys."

" _And try to watch your damn aim. Remember we want whatever they're hauling intact_."

"I'm not going to smash anything I don't have to." I reassured her, "I want my cut as much as anyone else here."

It had probably been one of Xerol's better ideas. The warehouses we were on our way towards we either stuffed with drugs, guns, or more slaves. In the advent it was the first two, he was offering what was basically a twenty percent cut, split between everyone there. Right now the main hope seemed to be that we were hitting red sand dens. While the cut wouldn't make any of us rich, it would definitely be a pretty tidy windfall of credits.

Part of me wasn't exactly thrilled to be making money off of that kind of thing, but the rest of me firmly told that part to shut up and accept it. At the end of the day, there wasn't much I could do about it. The drugs would go out whether or not I accepted my percent, a moral stand wouldn't do anyone any good.

" _I'm keeping an eye on the other teams. Thanks for getting that new hack in. Looks like your girl is about to hit her target, Chom's about a minute away_." There was a quiet pause. " _Keep yourself alive ape. And bring Ghai back too_."

"I'm pretty sure she can handle herself, but I'll keep an eye on her all the same." I promised, glancing at the mission clock. Still enough time to ask this.. "You trust these engineers that Aethyta found for us?"

Instead of relying on the automated jamming routines again, our Matriarch boss had pulled in some of her bartenders and waitresses who had training in that kind of thing. Of course, since she'd had to call them in from across the planet, most of them hadn't been exactly.. happy about showing up to help.

" _They're not about to betray us to a gang of Asari hating bitches ape. I know you're paranoid with good reason, but damn_.  _Throttle it down a bit._ "

I winced, "Sorry."

" _Don't worry about it. Hey, you're getting close, I'm closing this link before Xerol or Marn picks up on it. Luck ape_."

"Thanks scales." I blew out a long breath, glancing around at the assembled squad. Everyone but Re'hat and Ghai were buckled into their seats, their helmets already on. The former nodded to something that the latter said, then started to move around me before a bit of turbulence bounced his heavy frame off of me.

"I liked you better when you weren't taking up half the damn shuttle." Re'hat grumbled as he grabbed onto my long gun to stay upright.

I snorted, speaking loudly enough for my mics to transmit externally. "Sit your ass down then you damned idiot."

He muttered something uncouth about my parentage, staggered over towards the bulkhead to collapse into a fold out chair. The rest of his team snickered quietly, though most of them seemed about as happy as he was to have my bulky form occupying most of the shuttle's free space. Only Ghai seemed perfectly at ease, circling me as she inspected everyone's armor and weapons one last time.

"Two minutes!" The co-pilot, and our assigned engineer on loan from Aethyta, called back. She was less than thrilled about being pried out of her cozy bar in Nos Irrail to help an alien raid on another continent; she hadn't even bothered giving us her name when I'd asked. "Let's get this goddess damned thing over with."

Ghai gave the cockpit a severe glance and shook her head before moving up to stand next to me, her legs flexing by reflex as the old shuttle moved. "Kean?"

My eyes glanced over my new readouts.  _Barriers solid, no power drain. Visage is linked in. Modified tech mine launcher is in place and linked in. All actuators, motors, and the engine are responding green..._  "Good to go."

She nodded firmly, giving the sloped box that protected my head a short glance before checking over her heavy pistol and running a few commands on her omni-tool. "Squad?"

Re'hat quickly ran his five squad members through their own checks, reporting their status as ready to fight one after the other, finishing up with his own readiness.

"One minute!" There was a long pause, "That Shaaryak woman just hit the ground running. Someone tried to squawk but their engineer shut them down."

"Do the same." Ghai had to practically shout over the engines, and her lips twisted in irritation at having to do so. Or maybe because she'd had to speak an actual sentence, that always bothered her as well.

"Athame's tits it's my damn job isn't it?" Any other muttering vanished as the over-worked inertial compensator whined loudly, the city outside tilting as the shuttle began its final turn on the approach.

"Thirty seconds! Jamming the usual gang frequencies now. Thank me later."

_Whatever you bloody tit._

I bit my lip, and not for the first time on this trip was glad that no one could see into the armor. For everything I'd told Nyn, Trena, or even myself about being ready for this.. I didn't know if I was. I was even more nervous now than I'd been before we'd hit the slave-holding warehouse. Back then, no one had expected much of anything of me. That I'd actually managed to be sort of useful, and had nearly gotten killed because of it, had been as much of a surprise to me as to everyone else. Hell, the only reason that Xerol and Aethyta had probably even let me go with, no combat training required, had been because they wanted to test my loyalty in a fairly direction fashion.

But now I wasn't running around in light armor with just a tiny SMG and some tech mines. Now I was in nearly a ton of moving metal, with enough shields for three of Re'hat's people, and between the targeting system and the suit's own ability to handle the recoil, pretty much no reason to miss with my Asari-built assault rifle so long as I kept my head.

_Calm breaths. Remember what Trena's been teaching you. You have to move, react, and think all at the same time. Don't hesitate, hesitation gets you and other people killed. I let out a long sigh, half closing my eyes as both of my hands cradled the gun in their metal grip. Soon as we're down, head straight in. If they don't have heavy weapons, they can't hurt you. It'll be like playing a game.. just don't think about the people you're killing until afterwords this time._

"Hitting the ground... now!"

The shuttle door swung open, Ghai leaping out in a single, smooth motion. I lumbered after her, the engines working as the pilot compensated for my moving, and then vanishing, mass.

My legs flexed slightly, and my knee and ankle actuators briefly flashed yellow before shifting back to green when I impacted the ground, but I didn't really have time to focus on them. Apparently the True Sons here had heard the rising gunfire from the other sites, and had started to group up to go investigate.

"Kean! Up!" Ghai shouted, her body alight as she brought a barrier into place to cover Re'hat as his people leaped to the ground, erratic gunfire sending flickers through the glowing wall as rounds hit.

"On it!" I brought my gun up, the targeting reticle in my hud shifting as I advanced past the biotic cover.

The main hanger door on our side was fully open, enough to reveal the half a dozen air cars parked inside, as well as nearly twice as many massive cargo containers. Of course, that was far less relevant than the thirty odd gang members rapidly reversing direction, firing over their shoulders as they raced back to the promise of safety that the warehouse offered.

I adjusted my aim and started firing slow bursts. I'd upgraded the Visage's heat sinks, but I didn't want to take chances yet, not without knowing how many of them were actually present. Besides.. it didn't take more than a few rounds from a rifle to drop these poor morons.

 _How desperate do you have to be to not just bolt and run when this starts_.. I winced with each pull of the trigger.  _How willfully stupid to believe whoever says you can take us with that crap gear? They might as well just go into battle naked with slingshots._

People started to tumble to the pavement as my fire hit them, blood of different hues puffing into mist as they fell. A few survived the initial hits to scream as they collapsed, and I had to grind my teeth and resist the urge to mute my external mics.

Ghai's biotics started flaring not long after, and more tracer rounds lit the air as our Batarian comrades joined the turkey shoot. Maybe eight or nine survived to scramble indoors, the rest were either dying or already dead.

"I'm pushing ahead," I called back, firmly keeping my eyes on the objective and not on what I was walking past. "We can't let them shut the doors."

"Confirmed." Ghai was already running, long loping strides leaving our squad behind her, "Re'hat, cover. Control?"

" _This is Trena. Little Shaaryak and Chom report minimal resistance, no more than a dozen at each site. They're already cleaning up the last of them_." There was a short pause, just long enough for her to have switched to a more limited channel. " _Ghai, I'm watching through the ape's suit. There's a Turian who was shouting orders at everyone, wearing dark gray armor, no obvious logo. He ducked left_."

"Kean. You."

 _Well. Shit_. "Left, Turian in gray. Got it."

The gaping entryway came up a lot fast than I hoped it would, furtive forms barely visible as they darted from cover to cover as someone shouted commands. If Trena hadn't already spotted him, that much would have confirmed that there was someone present who knew what they were doing. From what I'd seen, and heard from the others after they returned from fights, the True Sons really weren't much into planned defenses. They were far more of an angry mob that ran at you screaming and shooting wildly.

Of course, if they'd shelled out the cash for better guns, they'd have had a good position of cover to let us have it as we moved up. So thank Athame for small mercies I suppose.

In and left. I didn't bother slowing down, my armored form barreling straight in before I started my turn... only to slam right into a woman wearing dark grey armor without any visible logos.

"Oof! What the fuck!?" she staggered back from the impact, trying to bring up her shotgun.

I didn't give her the chance, swinging my gun until the muzzle slammed into her stomach and pulling the trigger until red blood sprayed out over me. There was an extremely high pitched scream as she collapsed, reflexively curling into the fetal position as she fell.

"Tara's down!" Someone, it sounded like a Turian, bellowed nearby, "Take it down, it's blocking the door controls!"

Said controls were visible in the corner of my eye, and apparently had been what the fallen woman had been trying to use when I'd run right into her. I barely had time to notice that before disciplined fire, interspersed with chaotic pistol shots, began to batter me.

"Ghai! More of them!" I snapped my gun up, sending flecks of blood everywhere, and returned fire as I held my ground in front of the control panel. Besides the Turian Trena had seen, there were three more figures, all wearing armor similar to him and the woman bleeding out over my feet. Between them and the remaining True Sons, my barriers began to spark as the bar dropped rapidly. "Four!"

 _Prioritize, shotgun right there_. For the most part everyone had ducked quite sensibly into cover, even the normally idiotic gang kids, but one figure had slid out from behind a container. The Batarian was snarling something as he hefted up a short-barreled shotgun, the weapon glowing with a loaded carnage round.

My shots him him before he could pull the trigger, and he tried to flinch back into cover. Not bothering with controlling my fire, I hosed him down at full auto. Whatever shields and armor he was packing were apparently worth every credit, because he'd barely collapsed in vicious sprays of red blood before my weapon clicked in protest as it overheated.

_Even with the fucking incendiary rounds.._

"Fuck! Ghai!" I flinched as my barrier indicator started flashing in alarm. "Need some help up here!"

"Incinerate right!" She probably tore something shouting that loudly, but a few heartbeats later a biotic barrier snapped into place between me and the three remaining professionals.

I turned to my right, only half noticing her glowing form sliding between me and the wall as she focused on keeping my flank safe. My left hand let go of my weapon, rising to point my arm directly towards where the remaining True Sons were using their cars as cover. Whoever was leading them had his head screwed on properly, because a voice was shouting at them to fire on Re'hat's people instead of wasting their shots on me. Fingers snapped into quick movements, and the back-up omni-tool I'd hot-wired to read the motions of the suit's fingers flickered to life, surrounding my metal forearm in an orange circle of light. It pulsed rapidly as it processed the command, and then the launcher stuck to the arm with omnigel spat out an incinerate mine.

The tiny glowing device shot up in a short arc, whipping back down to explode directly above a Salarian firing a Predator that looked like it was barely holding together. He went down screaming, and both of his companions, also Salarian, leaped away from the blast. Which worked out rather well timing wise, because Re'hat barreled into the warehouse not a moment later.

"I've got 'em Kean!" And so he did. Green blood poured onto the floor as he dispatched both of them without even slowing down. The rest of his team raced in after him, their own guns up and at the ready.

That was apparently enough for the remaining True Sons. One pistol, then another, then the final pair, flew over the cars onto the floor.

"We're done! Stop shooting! We're done!" A woman practically sobbed as she shouted, apparently not daring to expose herself. Which was probably smart of her, come to think of it.

"Re'hat. Prisoners." Ghai snapped just as my speakers pinged to indicate my gun was ready to fire again. "Kean, lead."

Bringing myself back around, I brought my left hand back up to brace my gun. I managed to take a few steps as the biotic barrier faded as Ghai let it drop, before a voice called out.

"Batarians, we're out! Hear me?" The Turian shouted, "We want to negotiate this!"

Ghai, still in focus on my rear-view camera, rose a hand, and I quickly stopped. "Talk."

There was a long pause, "You answer that Shaaryak, right bluie? I want to offer him a deal. Our lives for my information."

The former commando visibly tensed at the racial epithet, but jerked her head towards Re'hat all the same.

"Right. Step it out nice and easy, guns on the ground." He growled out, stepping away to let his squad handle getting the regular gang members bound. "We'll hear you out, but if we don't like what we hear... you can guess the rest."

Guns clattered to the floor, followed shortly by three figures stepping out from behind the heavy crates. The Turian definitely seemed to be the leader, followed by a Salarian and a human female. Their gray armor was definitely of high quality, but they'd burned off whatever manufacturers marks had been on there.

I kept my gun on the Salarian, while Re'hat openly tracked the human. Ghai ducked out from behind me to level her pistol at the Turian before speaking, "Talk."

"We're True Sons.  _Actual_  True Suns." The Turian seemed to want to make that very clear, whatever the hell it meant. "Look, I hate the Blue Suns as much as you lot do, but those barefaced assholes didn't give us much of a choice."

Re'hat glanced at Ghai, as did I. Not that anyone could tell in my case. "Explain."

The  _Actual_  True Sun actually seemed taken aback. "Wait.. you mean, you don't actually know?"

She didn't bother replying verbally, instead letting her biotics start to glow in warning.

"Right.. look, we weren't always their fucking varren, at their beck and call. They approached us last year after the Eclispe tried to tear us apart. There was money, resources, recruits.. everything we needed." Clawed hands flexed in anger, "But in the weeks after we accepted, they basically just started taking over. Killed every boss we had that didn't kowtow to the Shaaryaks. Took all of our best guns, gear, troubleshooters and shipped them all off to the Terminus for 'training'. Still haven't heard back from any-"

"History." Ghai interrupted him, an arm slashing impatiently. "Interesting, irrelevant. Present."

I felt my lip twitch. While she was probably right in it being largely irrelevant, that didn't mean that I didn't want to hear it. I liked history and back-story dammit. Especially if it provided context to what was going on.

There was a long pause before the Turian resumed talking. "I can give you the coordinates to where they let the slaves from Omega recover before putting them out on the market."

 _Jackpot_. Everyone stopped moving and stared at him. Which was probably the wrong thing to do, because his posture became smug, even with his face hidden by his helmet. "I thought that would be worth something to you. Here's what I want, you walk the three of us to the back door. My two friends here leave, and get our car. When they get back, I'll give you the information, and we part ways."

"How do we know you won't go running back to Yi'ren ul Shaaryak?" Re'hat prodded.

"The ancestors can rip that bitch to pieces for all I care." Either he was seriously pissed, or the guy deserved a medal in acting. "I hope you lot make her suffer before you end her miserable life. If that's not enough for you, I've got paid for tickets to Omega. Follow us if you want, I don't care."

" _Ghai_ ," Trena's voice came over my helmet, " _Xerol says to take the deal. Aethyta is swinging observers into place to make sure these punks actually fucking leave. I've got our moving team plus little Shaaryak's group on their way_."

"Fine. Deal." She didn't sound happy about it. Then again, I could hardly blame her. Whatever history these guys had with Nynsi's mother and the Blue Suns, they were still obviously anti-Asari. "Walk. Re'hat, take three. Kean, prisoners, shuttle."

Re'hat quickly corralled his people, three of them accompanying him as he and Ghai escorted our newest fount of information towards the back entrance. I watched them go before turning to regard the four surviving gang members.

"Right you lot, get your asses up and moving." I gestured with my gun, "I'm sure you know what will happen if you try to run."

The human girl, a dark skinned teenager who would have been pretty with more meat on her bones, and less track marks on her arms, nodded fervently. "Come on guys. This isn't worth a few hundred credits."

"Fucking right.." a Batarian female who looked even younger rose up, licking her cracked lips as I towered over them. ".. no problems from us boss."

They, and the two Salarians flicking their eyes rapidly in every direction, marched out slowly, their hands bound awkwardly behind their backs. Thankfully none of them were stupid enough to try and bolt, and they were secured in the old shuttle in a matter of minutes. I made sure that our pilot and the bitch of an eingeer had their hatchway closed and locked, just in case, and then closed the main side door.

"Prisoners secure Ghai. Need me to help move those crates?"

" _Negative. Watch. Chen will alert_."

I sighed, "On it."

" _Not bad ape, not bad at all_." Trena hardly waited for me to finish responding before she cut in our private channel again. " _Handled yourself pretty damn well this time_."

I snorted. "Seriously scales? I shot ten or so people in the back, soaked up some bullets, and fired off an incinerate. A battle of epic proportions, this was not."

" _Fair enough,_ " she grunted, " _Still, you didn't freeze up, and your aim was solid._ "

"I'm in my armor. You know, enough plating and barriers to shrug off small arms shit, and a targeting computer to help with my aim." Which I definitely needed. I was getting better with my little SMG on the shooting range, but I was still nowhere near most of Xerol's security people, never-mind people like Ghai or Re'hat.

" _Take whatever advantages you can get ape, no such thing as a fair fight. Your girl is about there_."

"I see her." Her aircar was whipping around the corner down the street, its overpriced engine's roar sliding down to a whine as she decelerated. "You think that True Son was telling the truth?"

" _We'll find out. If he's not, being on Omega won't help him. Better than not having any leads at all, that's for damn sure_."

"Good point." I blew out a long breath as Nyn's car glided to the ground beside the shuttle, "Talk to you when we get back scales."

" _Right ape_."

Nynsi, her armored form thankfully clear of any blood or bandages, emerged quickly as she opened her door. "Cieran, T'laria just brought me up to speed. Where are they?"

"Inside." I shifted slightly to block her as she started to head that way, "Nyn, they're letting them go for the intel."

There was a low growl, barely audible over the shuttle's idling engines. "Harath'krem, step aside."

"No." I let my gun swing free in my right hand as I brought my left around to grab her arm. "Tarath'shan, slow down and think. We can't just take this guy prisoner and hope he talks."

Her hands clenched into fists, but she stopped trying to get around me. "What if he's got a suicide capsule on him? Or he bites own tongue off?"

"And what if he doesn't?" She shot back, "I"m not about to let someone who might know where she is slip away."

" _Yes you will niece_." Xerol's voice made us both start slightly,  _"I've made the call, and you will accept it._ "

"But uncle!"

" _No_!" I'd never heard him snap like that at Nyn before. " _Your human is right, we are taking their deal. If they have lied to us, I will handle the fall out. Until then, you will obey your Patriarch_."

"Fine. I obey Uncle." She batted my arm away, and I let her go. Her legs carried her back towards her car, and she didn't even bother looking back at me before almost throwing herself back into it.

"Kean!" a voice called out from the warehouse, "You done with your lover's quarrel yet?"

I sighed, turning away even as she started up her vehicle again, "Shut the fuck up Chen. What in the deeps do you need?"

Re'hat sharpshooter waved for me, "Come on, help us move this crap. Haulers will be here in a few minutes."

"Right.."  _Well, this is going to be a fun fucking night._

It ended up taking us better than four hours to move all of the crates from the warehouse into Xerol's trucks, even with a good two dozen of his non-combatant employees along to help. Still, considering that Nynsi and Chom's teams hadn't really found much of worth at their targets, our haul was pretty damn impressive. For the most part it was just more of the crap weapons and gear, apparently sent ahead of the recruits, but Re'hat had ferreted out two full containers of red sand, plus a dozen or so others with 'lighter' drugs inside.

All in all, we could expect to rake in five or six thousand credits each, once Xerol got it to some of his contacts in Nos Astra. Not exactly a fortune, but nothing to sneeze at either. Of course, that news would have cheered me up a lot more if I wasn't busy dreading returning to Nynsi tonight. Xerol had confirmed that the coordinates that the Turian had given us matched up with a very private, very out of the way water treatment plant owned by the same shell group that controlled most of the True Son's assets. Which looked perfectly legitimate.. if not for the government owned plant not more than a mile away that serviced the entire district.

_Even if it's not exactly what we're looking for, there's something definitely going on there. Which is going to put her in an even worse mood because it'll mean that Xerol was probably right to take the deal and not risk anything._

If living in his mansion, and being with Nynsi, had taught me anything in the last few months, it was that there were two constants when it came to Batarian behavior. They liked to be in control, and they didn't like to lose. Xerol, and by extension me, because I'd supported him, had knocked her on both. He'd been right, and she'd been wrong, and he'd directly ordered her to obey.

And so it was an hour or so after we'd returned that I found myself nervously opening her bedroom door. I'd made sure to lock the main entrance to her chambers behind me, I didn't need anyone else walking in on this.

"Nyn?" I peaked my head in.

My paramour was pacing furiously in her under-armor clothes, the normally alluring sight dampened a bit by her obvious anger. "Cieran. What do you want?"

I slipped in, but stayed near the door. "Nyn, you need to calm down."

"It was the wrong decision." she snapped at me, all of her dark eyes practically blazing. "I don't care if the information turns out to be correct, we still should have kept them. They might have known more!"

Spinning in place, she actually kicked her breast plate, the heavy armor plate flying into the wall in a clatter of metal. "And Ghai! What the hell was she doing, stopping them from spilling their guts!? How much information did we lose because she was impatient?"

"He'd just called her a bluie." I broke in, my own irritation at her attitude rising, "Would you have been patient and tolerant with someone who called you a squint?"

Her head snapped back as if I'd hit her, her mouth moving but no sound emerging.

"Sorry." One of my hands rose to run through my increasingly long hair. "I wasn't thrilled about her cutting them off either, but I can't really blame her for it. We should consider ourselves lucky she had the self control not to just shoot them both."

"I..you.." She seemed to deflate slightly, "All right. But my uncle-"

I interrupted her again, "It was his call to make. And if this information isn't right, he's going to have to deal with having let that asshole go. And you'll get to say I told you so in as many ways as you can think of."

Her lips twitched slightly, and a surge of triumph rose me.. which faded the moment I couldn't keep the self-satisfied smile off my face.

"You think that I'm calmed down now, do you?" all of her eyes narrowed, the momentary mirth gone from her face. "That a few words from my Harath'krem are all it takes to render me docile?"

"I.. no, of course not." I protested. "I was just glad you weren't kicking your armor around any more."

"Indeed.." She slowly stalked towards me, making sure to roll her hips slightly, just enough to make my eyes slip down to them. As much as I'd been learning about her, she'd been learning about me right back. It hadn't really taken her long to figure out which aspects of her body that I.. appreciated the most, and to take advantage of that whenever she could. "Is that true, or is that just want you believe I wish to hear?"

"I.." Her long legs closed the distance quickly, strong hands reaching up to push me back against the door. "Nyn?"

"Your nobility.. is it true?" Her teeth brushed against my neck as she leaned down, "Did you intend to calm me for my sake.. or yours?"

I growled slightly as her firm body pressed against mine, "For yours, Tarath'shan. And I do not like what you're insinuating."

"You do not?" Sharp teeth made me gasp as they nipped slightly. "What if I had become.. calmed.. docile, even?"

"Then you would not be you." My hands found her waist, pushing her shirt up as I grasped at her flexing muscles. "And I very much adore you."

A chuckle blew warm air across my skin, "Yes.. that would be difficult to fake, would it not?"

"It would." I agreed, my voice growing lower as her hands began to pull at my shirt. "Bed?"

She pulled back, half-glancing in that direction before quickly returning to me, a hand wrapping around my neck to pull my lips towards hers. "Too far."

She pulled back, half-glancing in that direction before quickly returning to me, a hand wrapping around my neck to pull my lips towards hers. "Too far."

I didn't have time to agree before her mouth was on mine, her tongue pressing into my mouth even as her body pressed me against the closed door. Her hands rose above her head as my own tore at her shirt, pulling it up as quickly as I could manage. The kiss broke for the short moment it took for me to get it over her head, before resuming the second it was out of the way.

There was a low growl in her throat as she pressed harder against me, her hands falling to try and grab at my clothing.

Replying with a low noise of my own, I grabbed her wrists to hold her back. Before she could react I spun in place, hauling her around before pressing her against the door.

Her lips broke away from mine, her voice dangerous. "Cieran.."

I didn't bother replying verbally, instead ducking my head down and sinking my teeth into the side of her neck. Nails dug through my shirt into my back as her body arched, her breathing becoming faster as I started to trail bites across her throat. As my mouth distracted her, my hands slid down her sides until my fingers could curl around her pants.

Nyn let out a sound of displeasure when I pulled back slightly, but it was followed with a quiet gasp when I began to lower myself. Lips pressed against her warm skin as I carefully moved to kneel down, pulling her pants down in a mirror of what she'd done to me previously. After a few moments I was fully down, nearly eye level with her sex, and began teasing her by trailing my mouth across her skin just above it.

But unlike how I'd been, she was still determined to keep control. Fingers quickly wrapped themselves in my hair, firmly trying to direct me. My own moved up to her ass, digging into her skin hard enough to make her grunt. If anything that only made her tug harder, and I growled softly before nipping hard at one of the cartilage bands protecting the side of her slit.

That earned me a hiss of discomfort and a bit less pressure on my scalp. Breathing a long sigh of relief at that, I rewarded her by angling myself and trailing my tongue along her. Her taste was much like her kisses, earthy and strong, but tinged slightly with sweat and the familiar smell of sex.

While the slit was familiar enough, there was still enough differences that I wasn't quite sure how to proceed from there. I settled for letting her begin guiding me, tilting my head before gently pressing me further in until my tongue could begin pressing into her. The reward for that was a much longer groan of pleasure, and one of her hands began stroking through my hair.

"There.." She mewled quietly. "That. Don't stop."

Just because she said that, I did stop, starting to shift to press my lips along her thighs instead. Pain almost instantly radiated as she tightened her grip again, growling in remonstration. "Cieran."

I let out a quiet sound of my own before resuming as she desired, and her breath quickly became fast and heavy as I pleasured her. My hands slid up her ass and around her back, finding the sensitive skin between her spinal plates. The combination of my mouth and what my hands were doing was enough to press her over the edge after a few minutes, her voice rising into strangled sounds of pleasure as she began to convulse.

She spilled more thick liquid into my mouth as she held me in place, practically grinding as she groaned in release.

Not stopping until she'd stopped shuddering and twitching, I slowly pulled back, glancing up at her as her hands released my hair. Her lower eyes were locked onto mine, her lips quirked slightly as she panted. Her upper set was closed as she enjoyed her afterglow, and for all appearances she was content.

I was very much not, my arousal almost painful in its intensity. Shifting forwards, I wrapped my arms tightly around her waist and yanked her down. Her knees hit the ground hard enough to make her yelp, but any complaints were covered up when I pressed our mouths together. There was a long growl that became a groan as our tongues moved and I pressed her sideways and backwards.

Her hands slid down me, fumbling at my pants as I finished pushing her onto her back. The kiss broke as she hissed irritably before managing to get them down around my thighs.

My fingers found her ass again and tightened as I pulled us together, her legs swinging up to wrap around my waist as her warmth covered me. We both let out quiet groans as I filled her, our bodies remaining motionless for a few long moments as we simply enjoyed the feeling.

I started moving slowly at first, then more quickly as as I lifted her slightly to press deeper with each thrust. She hissed and groaned in pleasure as our hips slammed against one another, her hands sliding up the back of my shirt so that her nails could dig into my skin. Teeth followed suit quickly, frantic nips and bites digging into my neck and shoulders as I moved.

It didn't take long for me to reach my edge, even as I tried to hold it back, hoping to get her off again before I came. Those thoughts lasted until she let out a quiet growl, shifting her head around before firmly digging her teeth into the other side of my neck in time with her limbs clutching me to her as tightly as she could manage.

A gasping groan was all I managed before I clutched her to me, my entire body tightening as I came.

Nynsi went still as I finished, almost gently stroking my back as I shuddered above her. Her lips pulled back to trace soft kisses across my flesh, an almost apologetic gesture as I began to slowly realize just how bruised I felt.

"I'm sorry Cieran.." she chuckled softly, still not letting me go. "I may have gotten.. carried away."

My lips twitched as well as she groaned when I let go of her ass, "It's all right.. I think I did too."

"I will not complain if you won't."

"Deal." Twisting my head a bit I kissed her softly. "I don't want to get up though."

"Me either." She admitted. "But I do believe we should shower."

Sighing as her limbs released me, I gently withdrew from her and sank back onto my haunches to catch my breath. Her own motions were languid and satisfied, her lips curled into a small smile even as we helped each other to stand.

Fifteen minutes later we were curled up in her luxurious bed, her head on my shoulder as we both slipped away.

* * *

**Next up is Chapter 9: The Adversary**

* * *

**Author's Fun Fact: Cieran's Military Skill**

_Cieran Kean is hardly a military expert. His previous engagements have sort of illustrated that, while he knows military theory from studying history and playing games, he's never actually had to do anything like that in real life before. Now, in a fight against gang kids, he can get away with that because of his upgraded weapons and armor (light as it is). But in an actual fight against real soldiers, he's pretty much a rear-line engineer, tossing out overloads and incinerates but more of a hindrance than an asset in any other role._

_His power armor helps balance that out a bit. As he says, when he has computer-assisted targeting and massively thick armor and barriers he's quite a bit more of a help. Still, his duties largely consist of "go in that direction and be a distracting bullet magnet." That will change as the story moves on, and he actually picks up some useful abilities._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So.. this took longer than normal. Not because it took longer to write, but because, well, Adepticon happened, and it was a thing. And it was very much a needed thing to get me away from work for a while. Hopefully everyone is still around and is enjoying this fic. It was actually a bit hard to jump back in after nearly a week off, I ended up rereading the entire thing twice, and making a ton of minor edits along the way (updates to already posted chapters will come later).
> 
> This is also the second version of this chapter. I actually wrote the entire thing, read it, hated it, and rewrote it. There was originally a briefing scene beforehand, but I didn't think it really provided anything that couldn't be mentioned during the fight, short as it was. This chapter still comes off as a bit fast paced in comparison to the others, but I'm hoping it works all right as a lead in to what's about to happen.
> 
> For those of you also pissed at Ghai for cutting the Turian off about the True Son's backstory, more will be explained during the attack on the facility.
> 
> So here we have them clearing out a warehouse, and some mostly empty drug dens off screen, before making a big break in terms of information. The next chapter will be a preparation setup for the main event of going after Nynsi's mother, Yi'ren ul Shaarayk. That fight is going to be a triple chapter monster unlike any of the other fight's I've done, so hopefully everyone is going to enjoy it.
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	21. The Adversary

_I don't own Mass Effect, nor will I profit from this story._

* * *

**Act II: Chapter 9: The Adversary**

_This kind of meeting shouldn't be held this long after sunset.. I don't care that we only just got the blueprints an hour ago._

One of my hands ran across my face in exasperation as I stared at the readout on the main table in front of us. "This is a fucking nightmare."

"I hate to agree with you," Che'hat, Re'hats more dour twin, grumbled, his jowls shaking as he sighed. "But in this case a 'fucking nightmare' is probably understating things."

Xerol glanced severely at us both, his cane thumping irritably. "You are not helping. Control yourselves or go elsewhere."

I nodded tiredly, "Sorry."  _Still a fucking nightmare_.

The object of our consternation was the the floating image of our target. Apparently the facility where the slaves were being 'rehabilitated' into something resembling health before being carted off to the highest bidder. If we could take it, preferably with some of the high ranking officers alive, we'd have all the ammunition we needed to get the Eclipse called in like the cavalry.

_Assuming the cavalry was made up of a few thousand angry, murdering Asari led by a total psychopath._

In a perfect world, there would even be enough evidence around to convince I-Sec to move in as well, and maybe something that would warrant Aethyta being able to convince the Council of Thirty on Thessia to send in the Justicars, or for her to call in a favor a Spectre apparently owed her. Any of those would work to at least keep the Eclipse kinda sort-of honest.

_Of course, that's all a fucking pipe dream if we can't pull this off._

The compound was massive, apparently it had been a water treatment facility that had been decommissioned when a newer one was built a mile or so away. But rather than be demolished, the True Sons had slipped in and bought the place, probably at their master's behest. It was definitely big enough to hide what they were doing, with more than a dozen buildings occupying the grounds.

"My rookies cased the place yesterday." Marn grunted, "They've got people dressed up as private security, that gray armor like those True Suns were wearing, all over the place. At least twenty of them in sight at all times, figure triple that total. And that's just the external guards. We have no idea how many Blue Suns are actually inside."

"Or True Sons." I pointed out tiredly. "If there's anywhere they'd give the kids actual weapons this would be it. And if there's enough of them.."

"They could overwhelm us." Nynsi patted my hand in agreement. She'd managed to calm down over the last few days, fully I mean, and I wasn't sure who was more relieved; me or Xerol. "Uncle, even if we bring in everyone.. all six squads, our reserve staff from the mansion, and what few mercenaries you know on planet.. we can't put more than seventy guns on the ground."

"If that." His cane twisted in his hands as she stared at the image with his upper eyes, the lower pair flicking across our faces. "But we might not have a choice. I-Sec cannot support us openly, and the proof Aethyta needs to bring in her own support lies within."

Re'hat grimaced from his brother's other side, leaning back in his chair. "It's going to be bloody boss. We're going to lose people on this one."

Everyone winced a bit at that. We'd been lucky since the mansion assault. A few wounds, a few nicks and bruises.. but no major injuries or deaths. Of course, we hadn't really had to fight the actual Blue Suns since then, and they'd been almost entirely responsible for the people we'd lost in the attack here. If we had to go up against equal, or superior, numbers on ground of the enemy's choosing.. we were in all kinds of trouble.

"We have to think this through then." I spoke up again, keeping my voice level. "Look at it from every angle."

Xerol turned his full gaze to me. "Kean? Do you wish to run this one?"

A hand ran through my hair as I tried to think. I might not be the best in the fight yet, but planning, thinking, that I could do dammit. "I can take it, but I'll need to think on this with Ghai. Preferably with Trena, Nyn, and Marn in here as well. How long can you give us?"

The latter three, the last in particular, looked at me in surprise. Which only grew when Xerol contemplated me for a long moment before nodding.

"It will take me a few days to bring in the outside help, I'll forward my Harath'krem their information." he let out a quiet sigh, lower eyes closing tiredly. "The morning after next I expect a briefing on your plan, with our attack planned no later than the end of the week."

"We'll be ready, Uncle." Her hand squeezed mine as she spoke, "If you may excuse us? I think it best that we adjourn for the evening. We will accomplish little as tired as we are."

"Of course. Re'hat, as Marn will be occupied, you will be commanding the mansion's security. Che'hat, please see make sure that Yrrich is fully capable of handling his team.. V'Rae is not quite sure he is fully over his illness yet." he pushed himself upright, leaning heavily on his cane as he did so. "Ah, I had almost forgotten. I received confirmation from the Citadel earlier today. They've brought Iyate out of her coma and is awake and responsive."

"Knew that bitch was too stubborn to die." Trena shook her head while the twins both laughed. "What about that girl that saved the ape, Ran-whatever?"

"Rane'li." Nynsi corrected her primly. "Is resting comfortably with some of Aethyta's people watching over her."

Comfortably was probably an overstatement. I'd only talked to her once over a call, and she'd been going stir-crazy in her hospital room, stuck on her stomach so that the doctors could keep working on her back. We'd both thanked each other for what had happened in the garage, made small talk, then the docs had made her cut the call.

_Still.. good to know that they'll both be all right in the long term. Rather not have more people that I know.. well, I don't know Iyate, but Xerol named her his Harath'krem for a reason, rather not have her die._

"Good of her to live." Marn chuckled, "Always enjoyable to hear stories about your grandfather."

Xerol shook his head, but there was a smile on his face all the same. "Indeed. Now, I will allow you all to rest."

The meeting broke up slowly, the various squad leaders talking quietly with one another as they rose to follow our host out. For my part I stayed still, yawning into a hand as Ghai rose to push Trena's hoverchair closer to my and Nyn. Marn, seated opposite me, waited until everyone else had cleared out before talking.

"All right Kean, we're not exactly best friends here. Why did you want me on this?" Which was largely true. I'd always been polite with her, and she'd never really antagonized me, but we were acquaintances, coworkers, at best.

I blearily focused on her. "You're the only actual soldier of the six squad leaders Marn. The twins and Horthan were all freelance mercs, but they're not used to this kind of a fight. Plus I've seen you whipping those Turians into shape, you're a pretty good leader on your own."

The unlovely female crossed her arms. "Flattery won't get you anywhere."

I waved a hand, "Call it an honest opinion."

Her head tipped slightly to the left, "Fair enough. Well in my honest opinion, we're fucked here."

Trena, who had been digging her pipe out of a pouch dangling from an armrest, shook her head as she lit the thing. "Not helpful Marn."

"Not helpful, sure, but look at this." A hand snapped out to indicate the various points, "Here, here, and here, sniper nests with more than a mile of line of sight. That looks like a full sensor suite hidden into that water tower, which means we're fucked if we try a rapid assault. Combine the two and we have to land a long ways off, then come under fire the entire way in."

"It's a water treatment plant right?" Trena mumbled around her pipe, smoke slowly curling as she puffed at it, "Pipes?"

"No." I sighed, "We can't be that lucky. They have to have sealed those off to stop any of the slaves from trying to escape. I suppose we could check, but I'm not hopeful."

Nynsi leaned in a bit, and tired as I was I still couldn't resist glancing down at her chest. Which earned me a kick to the shin, which was totally worth it. "If we cannot sneak underground, what about over it? If we could hijack one of their slave imports, or food haulers, and attack from the interior.."

"Risky." Ghai grunted. "Communications."

She winced but nodded, accepting the point. "Right, the warehouse raid. We'd have to jam their radios to take the trucks, and that would alert them. Where does that leave us?"

"Totally fucked." Trena sighed, "And not in the good sense of the word."

"Marn," I gestured at the water tower she'd indicated, "What if we took out that sensor suite?"

"They'd probably have backups if it was a military unit.." her voice trailed off for a moment before she nodded slowly, "But it's possible that it's their only major cluster. It's the only building with sufficient height for the coverage they'd want."

"Uh huh.." My fingers manipulated the image, pulling it back until I could highlight the nearest major traffic routes overhead. "This stream goes almost directly over the facility, the Nos Astra to Nos Irrail corridor."

Everyone else leaned in a bit to examine it, and Trena nodded slowly, a hand pulling her pipe from her mouth. "Bombing run or airdrop?"

"Anyone actually have experience jumping out of shuttles?" When Marn snorted, I let my lips twitch, "Didn't think so. We rig up a shuttle as a bomber and take out that tower. No reason for slaves or anyone important to be in it, right?"

"There shouldn't be." Nynsi nodded slowly, "I would expect my mother to be in the main building itself. As the largest structure, it's the most likely place for them to process the slaves. I cannot imagine her or the other Blue Suns wishing to be that far from so many potential problems."

Marn cut in before we could get too much positivity going, "Assuming that we can modify one of our shuttles in that way, which will be a massive pain in the ass in the time frame we're looking at, and find a smart bomb capable of hitting that target.. then what? We drop in, guns blazing, and get cut to pieces the moment we land?"

My Tarath'shan quickly rose to my defense, "I am not hearing a better idea Marn, and we had not reached that point yet."

"Quiet." Ghai growled, "Both. Late, get to sleep."

"She's right. Let's hit our beds and come back to this tomorrow morning." Trena covered a yawn before extinguishing her pipe. "And at least we have on idea at the docks."

The Batarian squad leader inclined her head to accepted the point, then quickly rose to depart. Nyn and I quietly said our good nights to the two Asari as the four of us exited the room after her, us heading left towards Nyn's chambers while Ghai pushed Trena right, taking her back to the hospital rooms.

"How long you think she's going to be stuck there?" I wondered after we'd split up. "She's going insane in that chair as it is."

"Another week, perhaps." Nynsi moved closer to me, a hand finding mine. "Though I will admit to not looking forwards to her freedom."

"Yeah.." Couldn't really blame her for that. She and Trena had never really gotten long, not since the first day they'd met. And if fighting for their lives together hadn't made them like one another, nothing probably would. For the most part, I'd contented myself with neither of them physically harming the other. "You all right Nyn?"

She blinked all of her eyes slowly, "Why would I not be?"

"We're about to go and find your mother, and probably either torture her until she tells us what we need, or outright kill her if we can find the intel elsewhere." I watched her carefully as I spoke, "I mean, I know she's apparently a bitch, and that you hardly know her, but still.."

A shoulder rose and fell slightly, "Cieran.. as you say, I hardly know her. I have no memories of her as my mother. My uncle, as well as Iyate and Ghai, have been the only family I have truly known in my life. As far as I am concerned, Yi'ren ul Shaaryak is merely an exiled family member too stupid to know she is no longer wanted."

My lips twitched, "And you're pissed off about the whole suitor thing?"

"Yes." Her teeth showed as she growled darkly. "And that."

I squeezed her hand gently, "Not happening."

"Of course not." she agreed, "I'd never let him live through the first night. Of course, that would assume that you didn't kill him long before that time."

"Would murdering your fiancee in cold blood count as being noble, or not?" I made a show of frowning. "I mean, protecting your honor and all that, but also.. well, you know, murder. Probably extremely messily and violently. And not quickly either."

She chuckled, leaning over to kiss my cheek as we approached her doors, "I would consider it a most noble thing."

"So long as you would." I let our hands separate as I opened the door for her, holding it until she'd passed. "Although it does bring up something I was meaning to talk to you about."

Her head titled as she glanced back at me, patiently waiting for me to lock the door before following her into the bedroom. "Something tells me this will be an unpleasant conversation."

"Possibly." I grimaced slightly, "Nyn.. I'm your Harath'krem. That means something to you."

"And to you."

"And to me." I agreed, "But.. I mean, how much pressure are you going to come under to.. well, find a male heir for the Shaaryak?"

Her back stiffened slightly as she understood what I was getting at. "You're worried that you would become my.. bit on the side. My alien consort for when my husband is away."

I winced. I wouldn't have actually said it like that, but I'd have been lying if I hadn't started to worry about it as I understood more about Batarian culture. Apparently their views on women were very.. old fashioned. Like Xerol had told me, his little enclave here were very much out of the norm, largely because they didn't have much of a choice with how few Batarians were on Illium. Nynsi would still have had some power even in the Hegemony, as Xerol's only heir, but the moment she was married she would lose most of it.. and as soon as she had a male child, she'd have lost the rest.

And while having a Harath'krem as her lover wouldn't be that out of the ordinary, her Harath'krem being a human very much was. If she ever did get married to one of her own people, us still being 'together' would become very risky for us both.

_And face it. You couldn't stand to be her bit on the side, having to share her with someone else._

"Cieran.." her voice held something unusual: uncertainty. She glanced away slightly as we stood in the entryway to her bedroom. "My uncle has.. approved of us so far, but even so.."

"No." I blame it on being tired, but my mouth ran ahead of my brain, saying what was there even if it probably wasn't the smart thing to do. "Nyn, I'm your Harath'krem. That means I'm yours. But you're also my Tarath'shan, and that means that you are mine."

She blinked rapidly, "Cieran, that's.."

"How it is." My hands found her waist and pulled her tight against me, her dark eyes widening slightly as I did so. "I'm not property. I'm Harath'krem. And I do not share."

There was a low, pleased sound from deep in her throat. "And if my Patriarch insists?"

Fingers slid up her back, following the protective plates up her spine until I could wrap them around the back of her neck. "He can insist all he want. So long as I'm you're noble warrior, you are mine, I am yours, and there is nothing else to discuss."

Warm hands drifted up my own body, one of them tangling into my hair so that she could pull my even closer. "I've never heard you so.. possessive."

My lips twitched. "Get used to it."

"I intend to." I leaned in and licked her lips slowly before gently biting her lower one, pulling back as she pressed against me. "Now, the bed tonight."

She chuckled pleasantly, "As you say, Harath'krem."

* * *

The next morning found the five of us once more sitting in the briefing room, various drinks held in our hands as we brought the relevant images back up. Of course, we'd have already gotten started if Trena could have just kept her bloody mouth shut about certain.. things.

"Nice marks there ape." My friend snickered, "Maybe you should try bending her over so she can't bite you next time."

I rolled my eyes, and tried not to strain the right side of my neck. "Ghai, hit her please."

The commando just sighed, shaking her head at the both of us as she tried to focus on what we were supposed to be doing.

"Like she'd take your side. Seriously, little Shaaryak, is he  _that_  good, or is that just a Batarian thing?"

Nynsi growled, fighting a losing battle against the flush darkening her skin from its light teal to a deep maroon. "Can we please discuss the matter at hand?"

"For the love of the Pillars, yes." Marn groaned, taking a long drink from her tea. "I don't need the details of your inter-species relationship. No offense you two."

I waved a hand, "It's the eyes, I know. Anyone have any good ideas to lead us off with? Excepting you scales. You don't get to talk until you're thinking with your head, not your azure."

She barked out a laugh, tipping her head, "Not bad ape."

Ghai sighed. "Focus. Please."

"Right.." Nynsi gave Trena a severe glance before nodding, "Our initial strike should probably include the bombing concept we discussed yesterday. That should eliminate their main sensor suite and allow us to attack them directly from the air."

"Which still means making a hot landing in nothing more than lightly armored air cars and old shuttles in the middle of an armed compound." Marn, obviously relieved that we were back on track, shook her head. "Which is better than getting blasted out of the air, sure, but it just changes where we get killed."

I grimaced, but nodded, and tried not to grimace again. Trena's teasing or not, Nyn really had done a number where my shoulder and neck met on the right side. It would probably scar.. not that I really minded. "Fair. So, once the sensor grid is down.. we don't have the time or patience to take the slow, haunting route."

Trena frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Well, if we had the time, we could take out the sensors, get them all paranoid.. and then do nothing. Wait for them to fix it, hit it again. Do it a couple of times, maybe lurk at the edges of their sight.."

Marn nodded in approval. "That's a standard Hegemony tactic when attacking an isolated compound with limited numbers. Massive psychological pressure on the defenders, keep it up long enough and they start to crack. But they could call in reinforcements, and transfer personnel out, so not really effective here. Plus, sooner or later Chacksin and more Blue Suns are going to show. We've got to get this handled before they can."

"Yeah." I sighed. "Whatever we do it has to be fast. Take out the sensors, get jammers in place to stop them from screaming for help, then.. fly in and somehow not die. The last part is the issue."

Ghai frowned, then silently reached out and tapped a few points. "Our sharpshooters." The rest of us cocked our heads or leaned in as she worked out her thoughts. "Take out snipers. Suppress entrances here. Here."

She settled back, manipulating the image to place green icons where she'd indicated. A moment later, blue columns of light showed the various places that they would each have to cover. By and large they'd be able to watch most of the areas we'd need covered, but..

"We'd need at least a full squad, plus them." I waved a hand, "Any of Xerol's mercs have heavy weapons? Light machine guns?"

Nynsi quickly brought up her omni-tool and flicked through a few of the data pages that Ghai had forwarded to her. "Yes. Two of them, plus one of Chom's people has a light machine gun. An older model, but sufficient for suppressing fire."

"So shift these sharpshooters.. to here, here, and here. Put those guns in their place for suppressing fire." My excitement rose a bit, feeling a bit more in my element in this kind of thing. "At least one, or two more guns with each one of them. That'll give us this entire area at the base of the main structure to set down in."

"Yes." Ghai nodded firmly. "But interior. Unknown enemy count."

And just like that most of the excitement faded. "Yeah."

"Take and hold. Raid?"

Nynsi glanced at me with one set of eyes while the others looked at Ghai. "As much as I believe that my Harath'krem and yourself would like to free those people.. I believe a raid would be the safest option."

The idea of leaving all of those slaves, however many were there, wasn't exactly a welcome one.. but she was probably right. The best way for us to keep as many of our people alive as possible would be to smash in, grab her mother and everything we could carry, and then smash our way back out.

"We'd have to find the control center, main offices, whatever, as fast as possible." I sighed, reaching up to rub at my temples. "How many people would we have on touch down?"

"With how many we'd have to leave to cover us outside of the compound, maybe four squads." Trena shook her head, "Figure at least a squad to cover whatever bloody door you lot go in through, leaves you the rest to find that goddess damned bitch."

"Eighteen to twenty people." Marn flicked the image with a long finger. "What's the interior look like?"

Ghai manipulated the image for us, letting the exterior walls grow translucent to highlight the halls and rooms snaking through the building.

"What are you thinking Marn?" I frowned as the woman's eyes narrowed, both sets flicking across the image.

"Here, these pools. Place in some prefabricated walls, and you'd have pens ideally suited to containing their slaves. With the walkways above, they could have minimal guards watching them. If Yi'ren wanted to keep a close eye on her investments, and the guards.. here, management control offices." The rooms in question were set on the second floor, overlooking the main treatment area. It would definitely have quite the view, that was for sure. "The problem is our route. We can enter this entrance, and follow this hall. But as soon as we break through these doors, we're in the open until we can cross that open ground around those pools to reach the stairs leading up to the office spaces."

I winced, judging the distance, and then winced again. "Twenty meters?"

"Twenty five." Trena corrected me, her fingers drumming on the desk. "That's a long ass run under fire ape."

"Maybe.." Bringing up my own omni-tool, I shifted the image slightly, frowning the area. "I'm not seeing much cover for them either, it's a pretty open area. Could I fit through that hall in my armor?"

Nyn glanced at the dimensions before nodding, "You could. Distraction?"

"Distraction." I agreed. "Give me at least a squad to help cover you, and all the doors leading in an out. We go in first, I draw their fire, whoever's team you give me takes them out. Probably need one of Aethtya's engineers, or two of them if she can spare them for this, and we'll start sealing the doors."

Ghai nodded slowly. "Potential. Back-ups?"

The rest of us sighed, and settled in for a very long day. The size of the compound caused problems through the entire process, to absolutely no one's surprise. In the end, pretty much of all our planning amounted to "if shit really goes wrong, get the fuck out and we'll try again later". We didn't bother breaking for lunch or dinner, instead having Nyn call the kitchen to bring us up food. The other squad leaders also drifted in an out throughout the day, making their own suggestions or comments. That eventually culminated in Xerol himself showing up just as we were polishing off the food we'd gotten for dinner.

"I have heard that you have made good progress." Our host slid into the room, his gray suit as immaculate as any other I'd seen him in, "I do not suppose you'd be comfortable going over what you have now, rather than in the morning."

"Why not?" Trena let smoke curl out from her nostrils as she spoke, "Come one, we've still got some food."

"You certainly do." He chided, lower eyes glancing significantly at the mess of crumbs and debris surrounding her. "And thank you for the offer, but I have just come from a dinner with Captain Vasir."

Nynsi's upper eyes glanced over at her uncle, "Did you now, uncle? What was the occasion?"

"The occasion being her sister is on her way to Illium." Everyone went fairly still in alarm at that, "Apparently Aethyta was able to call in her favor after all."

Trena lowered her pipe, licking her lips nervously. "There's a Spectre on her way here? I thought Aethyta needed intel before she could even try to call her in."

"Indeed." I got the impression that Xerol was far more unsettled by the news that he was trying to show. "Apparently circumstances have changed, although Aethyta either will not, or cannot, tell me what has. All things considered, I would prefer it if our operation would be completed before her arrival."

Which was smart of him. I had no idea if Spectre Vasir was already the Shadow Broker's bitch or not, but getting our own hands on all of the evidence before she could take it for herself was definitely a good idea. Plus, while she was less likely to just kill any of us if we pissed her off than a Justicar would be, the option was always open to her. Better to have this wrapped up and completed, with a copy of whatever we found already waiting for her. A full copy too. Emitting anything would definitely be a bad idea in this case.

_It's probably the Broker that got her to drop whatever she was doing and head this way.. not sure if that means that he knows what's happening here and is trying to stop it, or if he's got some other game plan. Fuck, not like I can do much about it either way._

"So I'm guessing you want our timetable moved up?" I asked, pretty sure that I already knew the answer.

"How soon can we make this happen?"

We all glanced at Ghai, who frowned for a long moment. "Shuttle modifications, two days."

"Shuttle modifications?" Xerol blinked rapidly, "You're going to have to explain this."

And so we did, mostly letting Trena and Nyn do the talking. Marn and I chimed in from time to time, letting Ghai stay as quiet as she liked. By the time we'd managed to cover the main plan, our various backups, and now our concerns over not being able to bring in the outside help we'd hoped for, it was again late at night.

"What's the projected casualty count?" Xerol leaned back heavily in his chair, his suit coat removed and thrown over the back of it to reveal a plan black undershirt. I was still having some issues with that, it was the closest thing to casual that I'd ever seen him look like since I'd med him.

Ghai grimaced, her lips twisting. "High."

"One in six, minimum. Probably higher." Trena clarified, "That's assuming we're not looking at more than equal numbers in there, and that everything goes off without a problem. We can get our wounded out from the cover teams on the outskirts and the doors all right, but the team going in.."

"Understood." he sighed. "I'll authorize double pay for this one, and remind everyone to have their wills filled out correctly."

It really hit me then just what we were doing. I mean, you 'd have thought it should have earlier, even last night, but all of the planning.. was well, hypothetical. Like a game we were playing, preparing for a particularly hard mission in some shooter or a real time tactics scenario. But when he said it like that.. this wasn't a game. This was very, very real, and I was about to be stuck in the second most dangerous assignment. And Nyn was probably going to be in the most dangerous one, with Ghai.

I let out a long breath, finding my companion's hand under the table so I could squeeze it gently.

_One of us, hell, maybe both of us could actually die on this one. That's.. not a fun thing to think about._

Nynsi's hand squeezed mine back, a tiny smile making her lips twitch even as she listened to her uncle and Marn ironing out a few more details.

_No.. neither one of us is dying on this run. I might not be able to do much, but that's not something I'm going to let happen. We're going to smash our way into this bloody place, grab her goddess damned mother, and drag her kicking and screaming out of there. And we're both going to make it back without any problems._

And if I kept telling myself that.. maybe it would actually happen.

* * *

**Next up is Chapter 10: The Assault**

* * *

**Author's Fun Fact: The Mercenary Bands**

_To be honest, in ME2, and to a lesser extent in ME3, the merc bands are kind of just.. there, mostly as mooks for Shepard to massacre. But they were also everywhere, and I'm using that as a bit of an expansion point for them. This may also help provide some context when the Blue Suns or Eclipse come up in conversation._

_**Blue Suns & Eclipse**: These are effectively governments made up entirely of military forces, plus the support required to allow them to function. They are subordinate only to Aria, and only then when they would rather not have to fight her or her subordinate warlords. Each of them fully controls worlds in the Terminus, possess fleets of their own, and has assets in the Traverse. The Eclipse is headquartered on Illium, but the Blue Suns actual home base is unknown to anyone but their top leadership._

_**The Blood Pack:** Much closer to their in-game appearance, the Blood Pack don't actually have a unified leadership, or much unity at all. Instead they're more of roving bands of Krogan and Vorcha led by whatever Warlord happens to be the strongest, most cunning, or most ruthless. They are not above fighting and killing each other to prove dominance, or simply because they were bored that day. This makes them extremely unpredictable and dangerous._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this chapter is almost entirely planning and setup for what's going to happen in the next few chapters. Although as everyone knows, the best laid plans etc etc. This is largely to provide context as to just how dangerous this mission is in comparison to what's been happening earlier in the arc, as well as to establish that while he might not be that useful in a fight yet, there isn't anything wrong with Cieran's brain yet.
> 
> It also starts to show that Cieran and Nynsi are getting fairly, well, serious with one another. And like I said, while that might not be all that noticeable to everyone else right now, what with fighting for their lives and all that, their lives are going to start getting pretty complicated once things settled down and other people start to clue in on how invested they've become in each other.
> 
> Rather than sort-of describe what's happening in the next chapter, as it's probably pretty obvious, I'm going to tease the remaining chapter titles for the arc as well:
> 
> Chapter 10: The Assault
> 
> Chapter 11: The Enemy
> 
> Chapter 12: The Wrath
> 
> Act 3's title has already been spoiled on my profile page, but once this act is done I'll also be posting the working title of Another Realm II there.
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	22. The Assault

_I don't own Mass Effect, nor will I profit from this story._

* * *

**Act II: Chapter 10: The Assault**

"You all right in there Kean?" Chom slapped the shoulder of my armor, half shouting to make sure I could hear her over the shuttle's engines. It apparently wasn't responding well to having to handle my armor for the second time in less than a week, without a proper overhaul in between.

"I'm fine." I waved an arm slightly, examining the squad leader I'd been assigned to. She was large, not fat mind you, but she had a good five inches on Nyn who was tall for a Batarian woman as it was. Even without being fat, just being that tall and being a Batarian meant she was built like a tank. Aside from that, she was almost.. bouncy, something I'd never even thought to ascribe to one of her people. And from the rumors I'd heard, she could drink anyone, even Aethyta, under the table without any problems. I'd have still preferred to be running with Re'hat or Marn, as I knew them better, but she seemed competent enough to get us through this. I hoped. "Let's just hope this old can holds up."

She slapped my armor again before turning to look at her squad members in turn, "Bah! This rust bucket has held up through worse, trust me. Right ladies.. and you males I suppose. We're in our holding pattern right now. Soon as we have confirmation that the bombing team has made their run we're going in. What do we do when we land?"

"Haul ass!" all six of her people recited in unison, and it made my lips twitch.

"By the pillars you all  _can_  learn! Who buys the first drink?"

"First idiot to get shot!" again in unison, before a woman I didn't know added on, "Meaning the Harath'krem! He's too big to duck!"

There was general laughter at that, the guys next to her pounding on her shoulder pads in approval.

Chom just chuckled, shaking her head. "Looks like you're out of luck Kean, first round will be on you. Sorry, it's a tradition in my team."

"Not a problem, not after Xerol paid up for the last run." The shuttle hit a hole in the sky, and I winced as my suit automatically torqued me to the right for a long moment to compensate for the sudden dip. "Besides, that's what I'm here for."

"Right." She apparently didn't have any problems flipping between levity and seriousness, "Stick behind Kean here, he's got more armor then the rest of us put together. We'll be landing right outside of our entrance so don't bother guessing. You've all got your locks right?"

There was a rumble of affirmation, several of them checking to make sure that they did have them. Aethtya hadn't liked the idea of sending her people with on this one. Not that she had any qualms about sending them into danger, but if this blew up in our faces and she lost people, the Thirty back on Thessia would probably come down on her, and any of us who survived, like a ton of bricks. Instead she'd roped up the same group we'd taken with last time, and had them toss together a set of generic locking systems from omni-gel and civilian level gear. Really the best she and they could do in the very short time frame we'd given them.

"You see a door in that first hall, you slap that thing on the control panel and flip it on. Should keep our flanks mostly clear." she let out a seething sigh, "And if they don't work I'll beat the crap out of those puffed up bitches myself. Now, when we reach the slave pens, what do you do?"

"Keep using the suit as cover." the woman was probably her second in command, because she took the lead from that point, "And focus fire on anyone who looks like they can actually hurt him. Have two people watching our flanks at all times."

"Good. Soon as the boss's Harath'krem and little Shaaryak grab the bitch and whatever intel they can, we're covering their retreat and then hauling ass out of there. I don't want any heroics here, got it? I don't care if you see a fucking mountain of credits, stick to the job."

I blew out a long breath as she and her team started to check off on their gear, making sure that they were all actually ready for this. I'd lost count of the number of times I'd already gone over my own readouts, so instead I muttered into my mic. "Scales, you there?"

" _I'm here ape."_ There as long exhale.  _Probably smoking._ " _Bombing team is five minutes out. You and Chom getting along all right?"_

"Better than me and Che'hat." I admitted, "She and her people seem solid. How's Nyn?"

Going into the fight without her was even rougher this time. I knew that I was basically covering her back, and making sure that she would be able to get out once she got her job done.. but it didn't  _feel_ right sending her off with Ghai and the twins' teams to confront her mother and whatever personal guard she had with her.

" _Our girls are both fine, getting their readiness report right now."_ She paused for a long moment, " _Vasir and Aethyta are both here to observe. The Captain apparently pulled some strings to make sure the local forces stay out of it."_

"Well that's something." Not that we'd been all too worried. The odds of the Suns trying to contact I-Sec in had always been low, but it was possible that someone else would notice the massive firefight and call them. The last thing we needed was a three-way fight as they tried to figure out what was going on. "Let me know if there's anything I miss."

" _That's what I'm here for ape. And you better survive this dammit. I put a lot of work into you."_

I snorted. "Glad to know you care scales."

" _Damn straight ape. Xerol's coming on now."_

She'd barely cut the connection before said man's voice carried across the shuttle's speakers, Chom and her people quickly going quiet as he started.

" _This is Xerol. Everything is proceeding as planned, expect the operation to begin in three minutes. I wish that I could join you all in this fight. Know that I have the full confidence in our plan, and full confidence in all of you. We have stood them off for two months now, and have given our foes only defeat when they dared approach."_

" _Fucking right!"_ Trena interrupted him, and some of the tension was broken in more laughing and good natured hitting.

" _Indeed old friend. For all those who go into combat this day, I ask that the Pillar of Power gives you all the strength to strike down our enemy. I ask that the Pillar of Kin reminds you all to stand beside your brothers and sisters, Batarian or no. And I ask that the Pillar of Hearts steel yours against what we must do this day. May the all lift our souls to the heavens."_

My companions all made small gestures with their hands and bowed their heads slightly.

" _I shall be waiting for you all when you return. Good luck. Control out."_

_"_ Right." Chom brought her helmet up, fastening it into place, her voice becoming synthesized. "Everyone up, guns at the ready. Final sound off."

Barriers, full strength and holding. Actuators, all green with no overheating or stress. Gun, linked and cold. All systems.. online. I hadn't taken much of any damage on the last run, mostly cosmetic chips to my already battered appearance. Nothing worth repairing at all really, but I hadn't had any time to make more upgrades either.

_Next time.. one shot grenade launchers. That would be nifty._

"Harath'krem Kean, ready to go." I called out once all of her people had.

Nynsi's smooth voice made me smile a few moments later, " _Thirty seconds to bombing run, traffic is still going smoothly. Prepare to begin the attack on the mark."_

Our pilot barely waited for her to finish before shouting back "Everyone get ready to hang on back there, and leave the doors open so you can get your asses back in quick."

"We hear ya!" Chom brought up her assault rifle, a Phaeston model of some kind, and rocked back and forth on her heels.

The next thirty seconds were some of the longest seconds of my life. Just standing there, the armor auto-correcting for the shuttle's movements, waiting for the inevitable to actually start. It felt like I had an eternity to worry about the plan, about Nynsi, about everything really. What if my armor malfunctioned? What if the bomb missed? What if the covering teams couldn't keep the snipers suppressed? What if, what if, what if..

It was practically a relief when Nynsi's excited shout filled my speakers. " _Bomb team has released the warhead, direct impact on target! Enemy sensor net is down, all teams go!"_

I had to reach up to wrap a metal hand around a massive bar in the ceiling to stay upright as the shuttle hurled into an atrociously sharp turn. Chom swore rather impressively and had to grab onto me to stay upright, nearly dropping her rifle. The swearing grew worse when the overworked compensators suddenly resumed working, then flicked out entirely as the pilot threw the throttle forwards.

"Dammit! Inertial compensators are out!" The pilot wasted his breath shouting, "Twenty seconds to the LZ!"

"Too fucking long!" she grunted, shifting so that the thrust was pushing her back into my side, "Everyone fucking keep holding on! Sorry Kean!"

"Don't worry about it." Most of her people had managed to grab onto the hand holds in time, although two of them had had to catch one who hadn't.  _Fucking lucky.. if we were higher up or lower down, that could have been a real problem. Or if I hadn't been centered correctly.._

"Five!"

"Door!" Chom snapped.

Her second slapped at the control panel, and the hydraulics squealed unpleasantly as they heaved the plating aside.

Any doubts about the intel we'd gotten from the True Son faded the moment I had a good view of what was happening. Beside the column of fire and smoke that was all that was left of the main tower, tracer rounds and smaller explosions were lighting up the compound like a demented Fourth of July show. Figures, some in gray, some in blue, were sprinting left and right, trying to find safety as our cover teams hurled everything they had at them from somewhere below and behind us. A good dozen of them were already unmoving on the ground, and I even as I watched several more dropped as our snipers found them.

We weren't having it all our way though. There was definitely a good amount of firepower being directed  _out_ of the compound, and I tried not to flinch when a high powered round ricocheted off the shuttle as we came in low.

I didn't bother waiting for Chom's go, the moment the pilot called out "Down!", I heaved my massive frame forwards. The entire shuttle rocked ominously with the movement, our pilot's swearing filling the air as he fought to keep it from rolling. He must have, because the hefty craft didn't come crashing down on my head as I fell the short distance.

My barriers were sparking with the first hits even as my feet hit the ground, my diagnostics flashing at the heavy impact.

"Go! Follow him! Move your asses!"

I'm not sure if I was the first guy on the ground for our assault team, but I had to have been pretty close. I was vaguely aware of air cars roaring down behind the cover our shuttle's blocky form was providing, disgorging the other teams as rapidly as they could egress. But for the most part, my attention was on everything else.

Snapping my gun up into both hands, I started moving, firing short bursts at anyone I could see.  _Manage the heat.. manage the heat, don't fucking overdo it this time._

" _Kean, Chen! On your right, forty meters!_ "

"Got it." I swung my weapon that way, settling my targeting reticle onto a Turian bringing himself up with a sniper rifle in his hands. I put two quick bursts into him before Re'hat's sharpshooter blew his head apart. As much as Re'hat had hated losing him, he was too good with his long range weapon not to put on the covering team with Yrrich. Which, right now, was definitely working for me.

" _Nice assist. Dead ahead of you, thirty. Salarian."_

Another burst, followed by a second sniper round, and there was another dead Blue Sun.

"Give me a second Chen! Chom, I'm going to cover the door control panel, let me know when you've got it!"

"You heard him, move up!" the woman shouted, firing a long burst from her weapon from just behind me. "Yetheren, that's you! On the doors now!"

I finished crossing the short distance, wincing as an increasing amount of fire seemed to be finding me. My barriers were holding, probably because no one with a sniper rifle or a heavy weapon had really targeted me yet, but that was probably just a matter of time.

Chom's team fell in around me, the squad leader and another taking up crouching positions on either side as they started focusing their fire. The others all slid in behind me, while the other woman, Yetheran, started on the doors.

" _This is Shaaryak,_ " Her voice was interposed with the heavy barking of one of her pistols, probably the scoped one given the ranges. " _Time on the doors?"_

"Just a moment.." Yetheran shouted back.

"Chen, my left, sixty meters." I was already shooting at the distant figure that had tried to make a run from the burning tower to where several of his friends had set up a fire team behind a truck of some kind.

" _I see him.._ " The figure jerked hard when the heavy round hit him, but he didn't go down until I sent a three shot burst into his chest. "  _Damn. That one's yours. Good luck inside Kean, you're not bad for a human."_

"Thanks Chen." I snorted, shifting to general suppressing shots as the few remaining exposed mercenaries finished finding cover. "Kill a few more for me would you?"

" _Not a problem._ " I could almost see his cocky, needle toothed grin.

"Doors open!" Yetheran snapped out, "We're good to go!"

Heaving myself around as Chom and her companion quickly cleared out of my way, I kept my weapon up as I moved through the opening garage sized door.

The interior wasn't much to look at. Plain cement floors, tons of piping along the walls. and cheap lights on the ceiling. There was no cover at all, which was worrying, but that was pretty much secondary to the fact that no one was shooting at us, or seemed to be in sight at all. Just a long, empty hallway terminating in another set of vertical doors, this set cracked open slightly.

"I"m moving." Suiting actions to words I set off a slow jog, about the best I'd ever been able to accomplish. "Not seeing anyone."

" _Ghai. Assault teams moving."_ My rear camera caught sight of the commando vaulting her car as the dozen plus members of her two squads moved to follow. " _Confirm targets. Doors."_

Chom's people were already at work, dropping off behind me as they passed various hatchways built into the walls, slapping their makeshift locks into place and spinning them up. Noting that Chom herself was busy with one, I responded for her. "They're on the doors. Still no one in sight. Approaching entrance to main pens. Door is open."

" _Caution._ "

"I will be." I slowed as I approached, nervously aware that my entire backup squad was busy locking down the doors behind me. Still, nothing seemed out of place. No obvious booby-trap wire for example, or signs of motion on the other side.

Shuffling awkwardly, I slid closer to the side that was cracked open, keeping my rifle aimed as I shifted to look.

"This is Kean. I'm not seeing any movement." My tongue licked my lips. "Opening the door."

Letting go of my rifle with my left hand, I very carefully brought it up and pushed the thin slab of metal a few feet further open, and then again when nothing exploded on me.

_I don't like this.. they can't have sent everyone outside._ Very slowly I took a few steps forwards, enough to lean out to so that my main cameras could get a good look at the place. At first glance, it looked just like we'd thought. There were more catwalks over the pools that had once held water, and I could see the manager's office where it overlooked everything from a second floor perch.

"I'm not seeing anyone."

Ghai sounded as wary as I was. This was supposed to be the roughest part. " _Cautious advance. Approaching. Yrrich, report."_

Xerol's best sniper grunted, his voice still a bit thick from whatever flu he'd caught. " _We're dropping them slowly but surely. I've got three men down and out, and another four too wounded to fight, but they're running out of gas."_

I started walking into the room, sweeping my gaze left and right, trying to find anything out of the ordinary, only half listening as the conversation continued on my radio. Figuring it as good a place as any to start, I started towards the nearest pool to see if there really were slaves inside.

_"Reinforcements?"_

" _Not seeing any. There was a good rush right when we landed, but not much if any since."_ There was a thoughtful pause, " _Definitely Blue Suns here, openly so. This is the right place."_

_"Everyone, caution."_ The commando directed again, " _Kean, slaves?"_

"Yeah, they're here." An emaciated Turian glanced up as I leaned down, his mandibles flaring in shock. I could tell he was skinny as a rail because they'd left him nude, probably to better evaluate how healthy he was getting, or maybe just for kicks. Even worse, it looked like they'd forcibly removed his colonial markings; his face was covered in low level burns that covered most of the plates.

_Sick fucks._

He was alone in a cubicle, but he had a cot and what looked like a primitive treadmill in there with him. Judging from the flimsy walls separating the space into rectangles, the pool had space for a good fifty or so slaves. I didn't dare risk looking into any of the others, not wanting to see what was in them. "No easy way down, they probably lift them in and out somehow."

"You.. save us?" the flanging voice was practically a croak, and the hope in it made me flinch.

"Where's Yi'ren ul Shaaryak? The Batarian woman running this?" I tried to deflect him with a question.

"Her.. that ancestors damned bitch.. here. Says we need to be fatter... fitter.. more marketable.. kill her?"

"That's the plan. Stay quiet for now." I quickly took a few steps back, praying silently that he, or his neighbors, wouldn't ask anything else. "Prisoner," I couldn't bring myself to say the word slave, "confirms, Yi'ren is, or was, here."

"We hear you Kean." Chom called out, cautiously slipping out of the doorway with her team following. "Head left, focus on those hanger doors there. We'll watch the smaller entrances."

I glanced that way, and nodded, not that she could see it. Things stayed nervous and almost surreal as we moved through the open room, getting regular updates from Yrrich and Marn. They were still holding, and actually starting to run out of targets as the mercs pulled back to safety in the outlaying buildings. Ghai made sure that they stayed right where they were, not that Marn was stupid enough to leave our exit open to try and chase them into obvious traps.

The twins' teams, plus Ghai and Nynsi, ran through the room a minute or so later, the latter pausing to give me a respectful nod as she moved past. Unfortunately, the noise of their movements and quiet chatter apparently alerted the prisoners in the other pools that there were people, not the Blue Suns, present.

"Hey... hey! Who's up there!? Get us out of here!"

"Help.. please you have to help us!"

"For the love of the goddess, get us out! I'm begging you!"

"I'll do whatever you want, just get me out of here!"

Chom, who'd moved up to stay close to me, turned her helmet to give me a long look. Nynsi or Trena had probably talked to her, not that Trena was exactly thrilled about leaving them behind either.

I gave an exaggerated bow in lieu of a nod, not moving or saying anything even as I winced at each begging plea.

_We can't. We don't have the time to haul them all up, and we don't have the ability to get them out of here. They're safer where they're at.. Captain Vasir can send in I-Sec when we're out of here._

Knowing that all of that was right, true, and that ignoring them was the proper course of action naturally didn't do shit for me, and it was a fight not to kill my external mics.

" _Assault team. No one."_ The commando growled, sounding increasingly displeased with what was happening. " _Control, confirm."_

_"We confirm Ghai."_ Trena didn't exactly sound at ease either. " _We're running full air search on nearby traffic over Khar'shan Minor. Think those fuckers are on their way here?"_

There was a long pause,  _"Unknown. Seizing data._ _Che'hat to Marn._ " The portly Batarian came into view as he exited the stairwell, his team following at a brisk walk. They nodded to us as they headed back towards the hall we'd taken to get in. "  _Keep aler-."_

A truly painful burst of feedback cut her off before she could finish the word. The voice that followed was.. a lot like Nyn's. Smooth, a bit cultured, but it had none of my Tarath'shan's warmth. Instead, cold anger practically laced each word with venom, " _Well Xerol. Far bolder than I would have thought you would dare to be. Your brother will be astounded when I tell him."_

" _Yi'ren._ " Xerol allowed his own anger to color his voice, " _Do everyone a favor and stand down now._ "

There was a bark of laughter, " _Sorry dear, you see, I've promised my beloved husband that I would bring him your head. Now, which of your little teams are you with? Or did you send one of your blue whores instead? Tut..tut.. I would have thought you had domesticated them by now, perhaps bought them matching collars so that you could leash them to your bed."_

There was an almost guttural snarl of anger, and I started violently as Ghai.. spoke. She didn't raise her voice. She didn't scream. She just.. talked normally, the habitual rasp making each word sound even rougher and darker than I'd have thought possible.

" _Fucking goddess damned cunt. You are not going to survive today, and I will make your death as painful as I can."_

Chom actually shuddered slightly, and we all couldn't help but glance up at the office where she was. Two of her people actually took a few steps backwards, and seemed to eye the hallway back to safety behind them.

Yi'ren laughed mockingly, as though genuinely amused. " _Such a dear you are Ghai, as always. And where is my long lost daughter? Surely not hidden away as such a precious asset should be."_

" _I was going to kill you, mother._ " Nynsi sounded wary, probably because she was still in the same room as Ghai. " _But now I think I'll leave you to her."_

_"Such a pity.. here I was hoping that your uncle had distilled_ some  _level of respect into you. A daughter should never speak in such a manner to her parent, though I'm sure we'll have plenty of time to educate you properly."_ She paused, "  _Now, if I had to guess, you would both be searching for me near the pens. I would prefer it if I didn't have to come in and get you. Make this easier on your friends and come out alone and unarmed. I will even allow them to leave if you do."_

_"I delight in disappointing you Yi'ren Ul Shaaryak."_ My Tarath'shan did sound perfectly content in that,  _"And you forget, legally I have no mother. She is dead to the Batarian people. You want me, come in here and try bitch."_

That got a reaction. It was just a quiet hiss of anger, but it was still there. " _You will be punished for your insolence. Rest assured of that."_ The signal cut out.

" _Everyone on alert, scramble our channel."_ Ghai snapped, still.. talking, and thoroughly creeping me out by doing so. " _We've got the data we needed and are on our way down."_

Xerol spoke a moment later, after a much softer bit of feedback indicated our synced coms had flipped to a new secure channel. " _Prepare to withdraw. The intelligence is our priority here, not Yi'ren."_

His Harath'krem didn't sound pleased about that, but acquiesced all the same. " _Understood Tarath'shan. We're on our way down._ "

"Please tell me that was as unsettling for you as it was for me?" Chom murmured, flicking her gun between several doors.

"No comment." I kept mine aimed squarely at the still closed main set. "But let's hope it doesn't continue."

"I'll pray to the pillars." she sounded dead serious about it. "Anyone have eyes on the enemy?"

Marn answered for those teams, " _Still nothing new outside. That building's large enough to conceal plenty of them, keep your eyes sharp. That goes double for you Kean."_

_"_ Ha." I Shook myself as Re'hat's team, plus Ghai and Nynsi came into view behind me. "I'm shifting back, watch your feet."

Chom nodded, moving with me as I started to walk slowly backwards, calling out as she did so. "Team, start pulling back."

It was probably the wrong thing to say. Or at least, to say it that loudly. The prisoners, who had largely quieted when we refused to show ourselves over the lips of their pens, started howling again in protest. They were loud enough about it I didn't hear the massive motors start up, and if I hadn't been staring right at them I might have missed the hanger door slowly moving to open.

"Doors!" I snapped, rising my gun as I tried to back up more quickly.

"Move it!" Ghai growled before changing direction, heading for me. "Shaaryak, lead the teams out. Kean, you and I are rearguard."

I swallowed heavily as Chom turned and broke into a sprint, the rest of her people likewise abandoning carefully watching the doors in favor of hustling after Nynsi and Re'hat's group. As much as I would have vastly preferred to be joining the group sprinting, there was no way I could. The damn suit was just too slow to even manage a full run, much less a sprint. If I wanted out, it was going to be a fight for it.

Nynsi seemed to pause at the entrance to the hallway, staring at the pair of us, then turned away as she started shouting orders. I didn't have time to think on that before the hanger style doors opened enough for Blue Suns to start piling out.

_What I wouldn't give for Chen on over-watch right now._ There was a time and a place for watching my heat, but this wasn't it. I cut loose on full auto, the incendiary rounds glowing red as I held the trigger down, pausing briefly only when I needed to shift my aim. Ghai joined in a heartbeat later, firing her pistol with one hand in calmed, measured shots as she hurled biotic warp fire with the other.

For those first few moments we turned the still narrow opening into an perfect kill zone. Even from across the broad room I could hear the screams as our shots and her biotics tore the mercs apart, but something was pushing them forwards, forcing them to keep moving into the open field of fire. We probably got about seven or eight of them piled up in the doorway in those first few moments, which was a good start.. but it looked like there was twice that still upright and either already shooting at us or scrambling to get over the bodies of their friends.

If this had been a century ago on Earth, we could have easily held them off long enough to get out. But shields and armor were enough for first one, then another, then a trio to get out of their own way. Ghai had to shift to start covering our flanks about the same time as my gun locked up, the heat sink glowing a furious red.

Snapping my left arm off of the weapon, I started tossing overloads as quickly as I could, wincing as more shots started to hit my barriers, the bar dropping far faster than I would like. My tech mines started exploding in bursts of electricity, making Ghai's task easier, but my little launcher could only load them so fast.

_Dammit. I have to fucking figure out how to improve that. Not as goddess damned simple as leveling up, should have fucking thought of that before now Cieran!_

"Keep moving Kean." Ghai slid around me, using my bulk to cover her as she snapped off shots on a human trying to sprint to get around us. "Five meters to the hall."

" _This is Yrrich! They're pouring back out of the buildings!"_ The thick report of a sniper rifle split his words, " _Hurry the fuck up in there!"_

My companion snarled something too low for me to hear over the guns, just as shot sent sparks flying off my shoulder. "Barriers down! Three seconds on my gun!"

"Get the fucking thing hooked to a cooling unit next time." she snapped, throwing another wannabe flanker directly into one of the prisoner filled pools. From his continuous , agonized screams, they weren't in the mood to give him any mercy.

"No shit!" I brought my left hand back to the fore grip just as it  _pinged_ ready, firing controlled bursts at the enemies whose shields I'd managed to drain with my tech mines. As I shifted my aim, I caught sight of what had forced the Blue Suns out in front of it. "Uh. Ghai. We've got a fucking problem."

"Yes you do,  _defiler._ So good to find you here with the whore, the Pillars must favor me today." Yi'ren's snarling voice echoed on external speakers as her power armor reached out to force the doors open wide enough for her to fit out. The gunfire from her goons petered out as she appeared, looming over them, the double barreled weapon that constituted her lower right arm rising threateningly in our direction. Her slim, sleek form was a study in contrasts to my hulking, obviously patchwork suit. It wasn't quite as large, and probably didn't have the brute strength of my former exoskeleton, but I was pretty sure that didn't matter one fucking bit.

Her helmet slowly shifted to look at us each in turn. "Now, where is my daughter? Tell me and I'll consider killing you quickly."

"That's the latest model from Khar'shan." Ghai murmured, her body alight with biotic power. "Think your scratch built thing can handle that?"

I had to fight down a whimper. Or hysterical laugh. Neither would have been appropriate. "That's a joke right?"

"That's what I thought." She grunted, eyes flicking around as she seemingly tried to come up with a plan. "New plan. Run!"

I didn't bother questioning her. We both turned and bolted, a torrent of fire following us the moment we turned our backs.

* * *

**Next up is Chapter 11: The Enemy**

* * *

**Author's Fun Fact: Overall Military Skill**

_This is an expansion of Chapter 8's fun fact regarding Cieran's overall military skill, this time looking at Xerol's people as well._

_Remember, while they all have far more combat experience than he does, even Nynsi, they still aren't professional soldiers. Some, like Marn, were at one point, but have since quit and moved to the private sector. However, even her, Ghai, and Trena, the three most experienced people of Xerol's organization, were never officers. Marn reached the Batarian equivalent to Sergeant, while Ghai and Trena were both low ranking commandos._

_What does that all mean? For all of their personal bad-assery, these aren't people who have been trained in things like logistics or large-unit tactical assaults. Which is why Cieran, thanks to his history of gaming and military historical research, seems mildly competent in comparison._

_An excellent example is in this chapter; no one apparently thought to get the shuttle fixed up to properly carry the power armor again in the short period of time that they had. If it weren't for the pilot's skill, Chom's squad could have all easily died, no need for the Blue Suns to fire a shot._

_Long story short, expect that inexperience to keep biting them in the ass until they get more used to doing shit like this._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd like to apologize if the formatting is ever a little.. off lately. For some reason all of my chapters are being import entirely in italics. Which is a giant pain in the ass because then I have to go through it all and get it all right after I undo that. Going to try and find a work around.
> 
> Well, here we finally meet Yi'ren ul Shaaryak, Nynsi's mother and overall gem of a sapient being. Things are going to stay pretty hectic in the next chapter, as I'm sure everyone could tell from the cliffhanger. I actually had the idea of putting her in actual, purpose-built battle armor back when I first though of putting Cieran in his scratch built version.
> 
> As a minor tease, the next chapter will have what I consider to be the first 'divergent point' from canon. At the end of this fic, I'll have a 'canon' section where I go over how I think everything would have gone down if Cieran hadn't been there mucking shit up. :)
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	23. The Enemy

_I don't own Mass Effect, nor will I profit from this story._

* * *

**Act II: Chapter 11: The Enemy**

I blocked Ghai's body with mine, grunting as hammer blows slammed into my back. My engine readout stayed green, for now, but until I could get my barriers back up there was no way that was going to last.

We ran, well, she ran, I lumbered, into the hallway, earning a very temporary reprieving from the incoming fire.

"Shaaryak, Re'hat, we need cover." Ghai snapped, her rasp growing worse the more she spoke, "She's in armor. Latest Khar'shan model. Carnage rounds and grenades ready."

There was a curse before Nynsi spoke, " _You can't outrun her in that thing with Cieran's armor. We're moving back to support you._ "

"No! Cover the entrance and be prepared to support as at range!" she darted around me, skidding to a stop in front of the door control panel.

Nynsi snarled but my rear camera showed her tall figure still at the far end of the hall, blasting away at something outside of it with Re'hat's team around her. As much as I would have liked the extra firepower, I couldn't really fault Ghai for not wanting them to move up. The conspicuous lack of chest-high walls would turn the open space into a butcher's shop in a matter of moments if the mercs made it past us.

I centered my aim on the opening just as a human merc appeared, yelping in surprise and pain as I put a burst right into his chest. He flailed at his belt, whipping a grenade underhand as he dove to get out of my sight.

Thankfully his aim was terrible, the grenade sailing right over my head, bouncing somewhere on the floor behind us before exploding. My back got a bit peppered, but my still recharging barriers hardly even flickered.

"They're trying to shut the doors!" Yi'ren's enhanced voice snapped, "Get in there!"

"The suit's blocking us!" I'm guessing it was the human who shouted that back at her, ducking his head around to look at me, and frantically jerking it back when I sent a pair of rounds within an inch of his helmet.

"Any time now Ghai!"

"Shut up and shoot!" Her fingers kept dancing across the holographic controls, "It's closing now!"

Yellow warning lights started flashing annoyingly above us as the doors started to slowly swing closed. Slowly being the operative word.

I took a few steps back as Ghai retreated from the control panel, heading straight back towards me. Her retreat became a frantic dive when two more grenades whipped around the edge, one of them actually bouncing off my right shoulder.

Flinching by reflex, I barely had time to do even that much before the twin explosions nearly toppled me, my eezo core fluctuating wildly even as my low-shields alarm started up again."Son of a bitch!"

Using that as their cue, two Blue Suns tried to dart in, both clutching glowing shotguns in their hands. By luck more than anything they jostled one another as they tried to fit through the shrinking gap, giving me enough time to open up.

The Salarian in front collapsed quickly, splattering his Batarian partner with green blood as he screamed. I didn't have time to shift my aim before the latter fired, the carnage round slamming into my already nicked up right shoulder.

This time I did go down, alarms shrieking in my speakers as the plating buckled from the impact.

_Get up Cieran_!

Wincing as something dug into my right arm, I tried to shift my bulk to get my legs back under me, my movements getting more than a bit frantic as the Batarian tossed his gun to the ground and dove to grab his fallen comrade's weapon, cursing frantically as the doors finally finished sliding shut behind him.

He probably could have grabbed it and sent another one into my already battered frame if Ghai hadn't double-tapped him from less than a meter away.

"Fuck." she coughed, slowly hauling her self to her feet. "You alive?"

"Yeah." Sparks flew as I dragged the suit's flat feet back under me, slowly hauling myself back up. "So long as I keep that side from getting hit too much."

_Or at all really_. The pauldron was still there.. mostly. But half of the connection points had been severed, it was basically just sitting in place. One good hit would send it flying, and it would probably take a lot of the other loosened plates on that side with it.  _I'd rather not lose an arm, thanks._

"How long we have?" I started backing up as quickly as I could, trying not to notice as she winced, clutching at her side as she moved.

"Seconds." She grunted, nodding at the figures quickly moving down the hall. "Squads, status?"

" _The sooner we leave the better_." My Tarath'shan snapped, apparently still unhappy about not being told to come back to get us. " _But we are holding them off right now_."

Ghai and I started to move, staggering slightly before getting up to a slow jog. I winced as parts of my armor groaned in protest, and tried to keep my right arm from moving all that much. Ahead of us, Nynsi and her team pushed outwards, vanishing around the corner as they fought.

"Yrrich, Marn?"

" _Marn. More of them still coming out of the buildings but they're as tired as we are_." Something exploded in the background. " _For now. Hurry the fuck up would you_?"

The heavy bark of a sniper round preceded the other squad leader's report, " _What she said. I'm down to a single squad out here_."

I winced. He'd started with both his and Horthan's people, plus a few swaps from Chom and Re'hat's teams. Half of that meant a good dozen of his people, people I probably at least knew by sight if not personally, were either dead or dying.

There wasn't time for more conversation before the lights began to flash again, a quiet chim alerting everyone to the fact that the service doors were sliding open again.

_Ding. Round two_.

Except the service doors weren't the only ones moving. Ahead of us, yellow lights started to flash as our gateway to freedom started to slide shut even as we made it halfway there.

_Oh fuck_.

"Someone find the override for that exit!" I shouted, putting on as much speed as I could, with Ghai lengthening her stride as much as she could without leaving me behind.

" _Yetheren's down_!" Chom snapped, gunfire interspersing her words, " _Shaaryak_!"

Nynsi let out a curse but her tall figure slipped back into the hall as she holstered her gun, frantically going over the interior door controls. " _There isn't one!_ "

I had to bite my tongue to stop from letting out any noise. They must have gotten someone back to their central control.

We were a good half way down the hall, but there was no way we were going to make it. Ghai might have, maybe, if she'd been capable of sprinting, and I might have if I hadn't been in my armor. But put those two together.. and we were fucked.

"Shaaryak, get clear! Pull out!"

" _No, I"m stayi_ -" Ghai didn't give her a chance to finish, hurling a biotic throw down the hall the moment Nynsi silhouetted herself in the entryway. My lover snarled a curse I'd never actually heard her use before when her body hit Che'hat's larger frame, both of them stumbling to the ground.

"Control, we need a way out!"

" _Way ahead of you_." Trena, at least, was managing to say calm, although how she was managing that I don't fucking know. " _Last door on the left has space for the ape's suit, go!_ "

" _Cieran_!" Nynsi fought her way to her feet, her helmet locking onto me as the doors narrowed beyond her ability to fit through them, " _Don't you dare fucking die on me_!"

My lips twitched despite everything, "Wouldn't dream of it Tarath'shan."

The little moment of.. good feeling, I suppose is the only way I can describe it, vanished the moment the doors clanged shut, and tracer rounds started to fly past me.

Ghai ducked in front of me, her omni-tool flashing as she frantically sent a general signal to the locks Chom's team had setup. The one on our target door flicked from red to green, the hatchway sliding into the ceiling to allow us entry.

We barely made it before Yi'ren managed to fit her suit through the main doors behind us, the deep  _thud-thud-thud_  of her massive weapon drowning out the small arms fire of her mooks. I only got hit once by some miracle, but that one hit still staggered me as my shields lost a good ten percent of their strength

"Move!"

"Don't need to tell me that!" I snapped back, lumbering through the doorway as quickly as I could.

"Then fucking keep moving!" She was apparently channeling her lover, though Trena could never have managed to have that low of a voice. "Where in the deeps are we fucking going?"

" _Ten meters dead ahead, turn left_." Xerol had apparently taken over, his voice was tight as he gave us instruction. " _There will be a cargo elevator on your right almost immediately. Activate it but do not use it, with luck they'll waste time recalling it. Have Kean keep moving past it, three meters beyond is another doorway that will lead to another service hallway_."

"Will I fit?" I asked, trying to count the distance as we moved.

" _According to the schematic, yes, but I can make no guarantees in reality_."

"Fuck." Ghai and I said, practically at the same moment. If I had to bail we were both in big trouble. She was good, very fucking good, but she wasn't invincible, especially when she was already beat up and sore from grenades exploding near her head. And without her, I'd get surrounded and torn apart in pretty short order.

I kept moving past the elevator, half-watching on my rear camera as she ducked inside to get it moving.

_One meter.. two... ah, right here_. Slapping the door control panel, I hunched slightly to fit through the opening. It had to have been made for people moving cargo of some in and out, because it was just barely large enough for me to fit.

This hallway was dark, only the faded yellow glow of Asari backup lighting providing any illumination. It was hardly creepy at all really, and it was made worse by the sense of claustrophobia that I picked up as I moved. There might have been a inch or three on both of my sides and above my head, and given my right side's damage, I was basically banging my left off of the wall with each step.

"Quiet!" Ghai snapped, appearing in the darkness behind me as she slapped the door shut. "Keep moving!"

I did so, grinding my teeth a bit.  _Not like I can help making noise in this tiny space dammit_.

" _Another fifteen meters and you will find yourself in a storage room_." Xerol continued to guide us through my helmet camera and his maps, " _It has its own cargo entrance back into the main pool room. From there you can cut behind Yi'ren and her people and attack them from behind_."

"How do we know that she's still there?" Stupid as it was, I had to fight the urge to whisper. "And I thought we were trying to escape quietly, not circle back."

There was an uncomfortable pause. " _She's trying to force her way out through the service entrance. My niece and Re'hat have her contained, but they can't risk breaking cover to retreat to the air cars. They need something to divide her attentions_."

"Hit and hope." Ghai murmured, just loud enough for my mics to hear her. "Hope."

"Glad you're confident." I shot back, moving faster without pausing to actually think about it.

My companion, thankfully, did, "Kean! Quietly!"

I winced slightly as my left shoulder banged off a wall, but obligingly slowed back down.

_Wait, why the hell was I starting to run_? I blinked.  _Is it because Nyn's in danger?_

I mean, I knew we'd been getting far more serious lately, but unthinkingly running towards where she was getting shot at was a new one. Never-mind the fact that the person shooting at her was someone I was hardly equipped to fight against. My rifle was adequate enough, but that wouldn't mean much against her armor. Incendiary rounds and tech mines would only go so far, and that wouldn't be far at all if Yi'ren could concentrate her own fire on me.

_Good thing Ghai's with then. Get her shields down, let the commando go to work with warp strikes_.

Of course, that still left us having to fight our way through however many Blue Suns were in between us and her.

"Control, how many we looking at?"

" _Unknown_." Xerol reported quickly, " _But everyone is responding that the True Sons have finally made an appearance. The mercs are using them as fodder thrown out in front to overheat our weapons and then trying to follow up. Yrrich is keeping them honest for now, but do hurry, would you_?"

Ghai and I both snorted, and I saw her lips quirk into a small smile.

Reaching the end of the darkened hall, I reached out and slammed a metal hand into the control panel. The door slid open with a quiet hiss of hydraulics, revealing the pool room once again. And, just as before, it was empty except for the muted murmur of slaves talking rapidly, trying to evaluate what was going on.

That murmur grew, several shouts making me wince as my feet pounded across the metal floor.

Sure enough, I'd hardly turned towards the doors we'd left through not more than five minutes ago before a Turian strode purposefully into the room.

"Shut up you lot! By the spirits we don't have...BEHIND US!" He scrambled for his gun, only to jerk back as I put the first burst into his barrel shaped chest. The second polished off his shields, and the third set burned through his armor before he could even get his rifle properly set to return fire.

"Keep moving." It was all Ghai had time to say before all fucking hell broke loose.

Our access corridor's exit was parallel to the hall we were moving towards, which meant we had zero warning before people literally started to tumble out. A veritable mob of True Sons stampeded almost comically through the entrance, and it took them a moment and about eight of their lives to realize that the two of us were on their right.

Following her orders, I kept moving forwards, firing as short of bursts as I could manage to keep my heat down as the gang started to get their shit together. Pistols, shotguns, and SMG's, all of much higher quality than their usual trash, started firing wildly in our direction even as Ghai quickly picked off the few smart enough to try and keep moving to get around me. Still, their usual shitty accuracy or not, I was a big target, and my fully recharged shields started to fall quickly under the barrage.

More of them piled out as I closed the distance, and I had a good look as the front group belatedly realized that I didn't intend to slow down.

Even months, years, later, I can still recall some of their faces.. my fucking camera capturing their moments of fear perfectly as I charged.

"Get back! Surround hi-" The pretty Asian girl not more than a yard from me died messily, my enhanced bullets tearing her guts open even as she tried to provide some kind of guidance.

From there.. things got blurry. I swept my arms and gun from side to side, slamming bodies away from me as people screamed. Ghai kept shooting in a slow, measured pace, killing anyone she thought might be a threat to me. Once and a while she would use her biotics to burn or toss gang members, helping to clear my path as I murdered my way towards the entrance.

The bodies piled up quickly. Some of them even tried to jump on me, as if I was some kind of wild animal that they could simply swarm over. My companion executed most of them, others I simply slammed into the ground. A few times I stepped on... pieces. Sometimes still living ones that screamed horribly beneath my full ton weight. But never for very long.

It didn't take them long to break.

These were.. fucking kids. Teenagers. Hell, pre-teens in some cases. They weren't trained soldiers. They were given guns and told to go fight or be killed. The sight of an eight foot tall metal monster, probably covered in blood of multiple flavors at this point, was more than they could bear.

I let them run. Maybe a dozen were left to do so, throwing their weapons away as they fled across the pool room. I didn't know how many we'd killed. Two or three times that many, at least.

I wanted to vomit. I wanted to break open my suit and puke my guts out until there wasn't anything left. And once I was done with that, I was going to find a dark hole to hide.. whatever the hell I was away. Even more so than when I'd made my first kill, that Salarian.. I felt unclean.

Even he'd had a chance. Not much of one, but a chance. He'd had his shot to kill me and failed because he'd looked the wrong way.

These.. kids. They hadn't had one. Maybe if I'd been on the far side of the room, and they'd been disciplined enough.. but from ten meters away, forced into a bottleneck, my armor, a bit battered or not, had more than held up against their increasingly panicking efforts.

This wasn't fighting. This was simply murder.

_No. NO. Keep it fucking together. Move your worthless ass Cieran_!

Ghai didn't say anything, just stepped over the corpses and followed me into the hall.

It was, strangely, empty. The doors on the opposite end were open, and I could see flashes of gunfire, but there wasn't anyone visibly in sight.

"Moving." Thankfully my companion was still capable of speech. I was pretty sure my throat had swollen shut. "Status?"

" _Not fucking good_." Trena's voice was hard as she came back on, " _We're down quite a few people, move your asses_!"

We did.

" _Yrrich is down to three effectives. Che'hat is bleeding out but he's keeping them off the shuttle, don't fucking know how. Horthan is dead_." she provided a running commentary as we moved. " _Marn's only still moving because the snipers are keeping her safe. Re'hat and Shaaryak are playing tag with her mother, but they can't keep it up._ "

The short hallway felt like it stretched on forever as we moved. I couldn't help but notice the now open side doors, the omni-locks thrown aside. That probably explained where all the True Sons had come from, though where they had been until now was anyone's guess.

"Chom?"

" _Down. Yi'ren slammed her into the shuttle, can't get a read if she's breathing or not_."

I felt my cheek twitch as I forced the anger to clear my head. I'd barely known her, or Horthan. But I'd known them. Just like I knew Che'hat, asshole though he was. And Yrrich. And Chen. And Re'hat.

And Nynsi.

Half of them.. well, most of them were criminals by most definitions, and not the nicest bunch of people at first glance. But they'd helped me when I had literally nowhere else to go. Hell, most of them had overcome a few prejudices just to give me the time of day, much less having a meal with me or fighting an expansionist gang with me on their team.

_I shouldn't be here. But I am. I don't want to die, not in the slightest. But there's no way I can look at myself if I don't do everything I can to help them._

My lips twitched at the situation. Here I was, rushing to a fight in a battered suit of armor, half mentally fractured from what I'd just done.. and now I was talking to myself.

_Yes you fucking are. Now get your ass out there and be Nynsi's Harath'krem. Her knight. Deal with yourself and what you've done if you survive this shit.. but at least make sure she does._

Not slowing, I lumbered over the corpses of three Blue Suns.. and one of Re'hat's people, in the entryway, and emerged into a scene from a war movie. Fires burned randomly as tracers snapped wildly in every direction, sending puffs of dirt up as they struck the soil or leaving pockmarks in walls.

And bodies were everywhere. True Sons. Blue Suns. Our people. I tried not to look too closely.

To my right, Marn and three of her team members were crouched behind a burning air car, jerking up to snap off rounds before ducking quickly back down as their opposites replied in kind. A few Trues rose up from a crater,  _And what the hell caused that!?_ , and tried to rush them, only to be ruthlessly assassinated by the remains of Yrrich's sniper team.

But it was to my left that I turned. Our shuttle had slid away, Che'hat rotund form visible as he leaned out, blasting away at his target as best he could with blood covering him.

His target, Yi'ren, didn't have pristine armor anymore. Cracks riddled her chest and back plates, and her entire left side was badly scorched, the leg limping noticeably as she moved. Despite that, she still spun quickly enough, her massive weapon roaring at her own opponents as she completely ignored Che'hat's long range fire.

Re'hat dove behind yet another burning air-car, howling in pain as blood shot out from the leg he wasn't quick enough to pull in.

Yi'ren, probably sensing an easy kill, tried to shift to her left to get a clear shot, but flinched back and brought her left arm up to cover her head as her daughter sent a pair of rounds sparking off the plating.

My Tarath'shan had lost her helmet at some-point, and white bandages were stained red around her left bicep. In spite of that, she still slipped into a quick dash, firing her short ranged weapon as rapidly as she could to try and draw her mother away from her wounded ally.

"You need to respect your superiors." Yi'ren spat through her speakers, contemptuously sending a burst into the ground at Nynsi's blurring feat that sent her tumbling to the ground with a growl of pain. "It would seem that your father and I have our work cut out for us before you can meet your betrothed."

"Fuck you!" I couldn't stop the smile at the pure venomous loathing in her voice. She quickly scrambled to her feet, settling into a shooting stance.

Ghai motioned for me to keep moving up, shifting to my right as the pair of us crept closer. Well, she crept. I moved as quietly as I could, but considering the continuous gunfire, it was probably enough.

"Come now daughter, you can hardly hurt me. Your grenades are long since spent, and while your pistols are impressively augmented, they still lack the power to breach my defenses." She almost seemed to sigh, "Let us cease this pointless facade. Surrender now and I will allow your surviving companions to leave unmolested."

We kept moving, and Nynsi was smart enough to not indicate that she'd seen us at all even as Che'hat finally gave up shooting.

_Either she doesn't have a rear mounted camera installed, or it was damaged.. she should have reacted by now._

"And you would honor that?" She actually spat on the ground, "By the Pillars, you must think I am a brainless fool."

"A pity." That fake sigh again. "I have no use for an independent daughter. Still, so long as you are intact enough to produce heirs.. a few scars might allow you to understand the truth of your existence."

I was about ten meters away when Ghai snapped a hand up, her body glowing violently as she hurled the warp strike. Even before it impacted, which made Yi'ren howl in surprise and anger, I was moving, accelerating as best I could.

_Left side is damaged.. there._

The moment she exposed herself by turning in that direction I opened up, which earned us another furious snarl as my rounds rattled her armor and drew more cracks to the surface.

Ghai kept glowing, drawing her hand back as she prepared another strike, ready to shatter the flawed plating entirely even as my Visage's barrage actually separated two of the plates entirely, revealing motors and artificial muscles blurring in motion.

And for a brief moment, I thought our little ambush would work.

Then she started replying in kind.

While I was the bigger target, Ghai was the priority one. Her right arm snapped across her waist, the gun thundering at full auto as she liberally hosed down the area around our biotic before she could get off her second attack. There was a cry of pain as several rounds tracked across her chest, before her barriers failed entirely and two trailing shots blew her left arm off just above the wrist.

Xerol's Harath'krem collapsed without another sound, her gun falling from limp fingers as she dropped.

"Ghai!" Nynsi's shout was quickly followed by her resuming fire, for what help it did from that angle.. and my body slamming into Yi'ren as I body checked her.

I was stronger, with the advantage of both hands as I dropped my visage to hammer at her with my fists, but even damaged she was more agile, and with far more natural ranges of motion.

My left hand slammed into her chest, rocking her back, but my right shot over her shoulder as she smoothly slid into a crouch. Her right arm shot up, trying to slam her gun's barrel into my stomach, but I twisted and batted it down, sending her shots into the dirt.

I tried to grab the weapon, to use my strength to tear at it, only for her arm to suddenly snap upwards and to the left, and rounds hammered along me in a diagonal line starting at my foot, trailing across my leg and onto my chest. Alarms were shrieking around my head even as plating sprung free and my eezo core fluctuated wildly as I tipped backwards from the force. Pain slammed into my right shoulder like nothing I'd ever felt before as the pauldron went flying.

_Oh... fucking hell that hurts. Wait..._  Everything was spinning slightly, but I was looking clouds instead of at a suit of battle armor. _I'm on my back.. when? When did I fucking go over!?_

"This armor cost a small fortune." a coldly furious voice spoke from above me, "And it will cost me another fortune to repair."

My vision cleared slightly, and I forced my eyes to focus. I was on my back, most of my hud flaring in red as systems failed. That, of course, was secondary to Yi'ren's battered and smoking form looming over me, her gun arm leveled at me even as her other arm firmly held Nynsi by the throat.

_Nyn.._

"Still.." Her head turned contemplatively as she regarded me, and then Ghai's fallen form. "Rather impressive actually, even for a pair of aliens. And this armor. I had never contemplated re-purposing construction models such as this, perhaps it is a more affordable alternative."

She gestured with her left hand, hauling Nynsi's kicking form briefly off her feet to indicate the massive dent my fist had left in her chest. It had worsened the loose plating quite a bit, and I could actually see the dark cloth of her clothing hidden amongst the interior systems.

"Wasn't that bad.." I gasped out, trying to keep her talking as my eyes flickered across my systems, desperate for something that would get us out of this. "..Pretty inexpensive really."

There wasn't much. My suit was dying around me.

It was taking it a while, most of the core systems were still intact within the engine mount on my back, but so much of the control wiring and musculature had been shot to pieces that my scratch built computer systems couldn't handle it. They were trying, and failing, to compensate for the lost paths, and the engine wasn't adjusting the draw properly. Half of what was left was shutting down due to a lack of power, and the other half was shorting out from too much.

And whatever had hit my right shoulder had knocked out everything leading to that arm.. which throbbed painfully even as I thought about it.

_Wait.. arm. Is it.._  One system still glowed cheerfully green.  _Need her distracted and open. The moment she realizes it.._

"Hm. Perhaps I should let you live for a while, to show us how what you've done.."

I tuned out the rest of her monologue, whispering as loudly as I dared. "Scales. I need a distraction. Right fucking now."

My radio clicked once.

"..And if you learn your place, I may even allow you to live as my slave."

"Your slave?" I dragged my left arm up to rest across my waist. "Well. I'd be alive at least."

"Cieran!" Nynsi groaned out, her eyes wide in surprise, "Don't thin- _glurk_!"

"Now now my dear, your alien Harath'krem and I are discussing business. It is rude to interrupt."

"Good thing I enjoy being rude bitch." Yi'ren snapped around, tossing her daughter carelessly to the ground as her gun left me to point at Re'hat even as he stood up from behind the aircar.

My fingers were already in motion, the orange glow of my omni-tool flickering to life in response. I had no idea what he was planning, but he was giving me what I needed.  _Now just get back down dammit!_

Nynsi scrambled to her feet, shouting as she did so. "Cousin! Don't!"

He didn't dive back into cover.. or get a chance to respond before her mother but four rounds into his chest, blood misting into the air as he collapsed limply.

"Always the interruptions.." She turned back to me slowly, and for a brief moment her body locked up at the sight of my glowing omni-tool.

It took no effort at all to snarl the words out even as my program completed. "Burn you fucking bitch."

The tech mine launcher crudely welded to my left forearm obligingly spat out the mine. It curved hard to the left even as she desperately tried to block it, flying to affix itself in the heart of her cracked armor.

"No! Wai-" There might have been a tiny beep, and then fire flashed out from the gap. The screaming started at once, her gun triggering randomly as her arms beat against the suit's chest, desperately trying to put out the fire that she couldn't reach. The armor staggered away from me, flailing wildly as her screams continued, fire visible through the seams as she burned.

Nynsi backed away, half raising her pistol before lowering it.

It took Yi'ren over a minute to die. Well.. at least for her screams to trail into wet gurgling sounds that cut out entirely as her suits electronics burned up.

Somewhere nearby sirens were blaring. Either Vasir had released I-Sec to come in, or the locals had told her to fuck off. Either way, the gunfire slowly petered out as Nynsi and I watched her mother's armor collapsed face-first into the soil, greasy smoke curling away from its fallen form.

" _Ape.._ " Trena murmured quietly into my ear, " _It's over... you won_."

My throat clenched slightly.

"No scales. I didn't."

She didn't say anything. After all.. there wasn't anything left to say.

* * *

**Next up is Chapter 12: The Wrath**

* * *

**Author's Facts: Battle Armor vs Powered Exoskeleton**

_The differences between 'production' battle armor and something like Cieran's modified exoskeleton is largely one of primary purpose. A suit like Yi'ren's is meant entirely for combat, and is designed to enhance the soldier within as much as possible. Thus, while it's much larger than normal 'heavy' armor, it's still fairly slim and is meant to not overly encumber the wearer._

_In comparison, construction model exoskeletons are meant to move heavy machinery and equipment around, and are built more for brute physical strength at the expense of easy handling and maneuverings._

_Both are very durable and meant to take a beating, though in different ways. Much of Cieran's upgrades are largely meant to shore up the weaker points of his suit's design in terms of armor, namely the joints which are not nearly as well protected, even with his upgrades, in comparison to Yi'rens armor._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow.. so. Kind of a long break by this story's standards. Part of that was Adepticon.. then work, then more work.. then good old fashioned writer's block. This is version five of this chapter.. and is basically a combination of the previous four. Hopefully it works for everyone.. it's a bit dark, and the status quo is pretty much shot in comparison to the rest of Act II.
> 
> So. Yi'ren is dead.. but so is a lot of Xerol's security force. As far as the who's who list of who lived and who died.. you'll all have to wait until the next chapter.
> 
> The next chapter, and final one in Act II, will go over the massive fallout from this fight.
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	24. The Wrath

_I do not own Mass Effect, nor will I make any profit from this story._

* * *

**Act II: Chapter 12: The Wrath**

An hour later found me and Nynsi leaning against the perimeter wall, watching as I-Sec handled the remainder of the battle's aftermath. Well, that was a bit disingenuous, they'd pretty much handled the entirety of it. Nynsi had tried to help, once we'd gotten over the shock of having actually killed her mother and still being alive, only to be firmly guided aside and told to stay the hell out of the way.

Given that I was pretty much catatonic and relying on her to guide me, it was probably for the best. My right shoulder had gotten bandaged up where my armor had fragmented and scratched me up, but it hadn't been as bad as it had originally felt. Still, the news that came rolling in through my earpiece was hardly helping with my mental state.

We'd come into the fight with fifty six people, not including our shuttle pilot. Nine of us were still up and moving under our own power, sixteen would never move again, and the remaining thirty or so.. were in degrees between the two.

Ghai and Che'hat were among the worst. The I-Sec medtechs who'd loaded them into an ambulance hadn't wanted to say if either of them would make it. Ghai was in severe shock and had lost a lot of blood, but at least her injuries were easy to spot. Che'hat had gotten hit by multiple grenades and last I'd heard they were having problems stopping all of the bleeding.

Of the other squad leaders.. Yi'ren had snapped Chom's neck when she'd slammed her into our shuttle, the only mercy was that the blow had probably killed her instantly. Horthan had been hit by a sniper, trying to shift to a better spot when the True Sons had swarmed out from the out buildings. Marn and Yrrich were all right, if dinged up and as exhausted as we were.. not that they really had squads left to lead at this point.

"Is your armor repairable?" Nynsi asked quietly, one of her hands taking mine as she broke our silence.

I shrugged, but wrapped my fingers between hers. "Yeah. Need to replace some parts, but nothing major."

"Good.. I.. thank you, Harath'krem." Lips pressed against my cheek gently before her forehead rested against my temple. "I.. I'm sorry, I should have said that earlier."

Not really comfortable with the praise, I just shrugged slightly and leaned into her hug. Her mother, sure, I'd killed her, and she'd deserved it. But I'd gotten Re'hat killed doing so, and had, more or less, murdered a good two dozen True Sons that had just happened to be in my way. Sure, they'd had guns, but in my armor.. they didn't have the training to really be a threat.

"Cieran?" my alien lover spoke quietly, all four of her dark eyes concerned. "It's not your fault, about Re'hat."

"Isn't it?" I let my own eyes flick between both of hers before finding my feet. "If I hadn't asked Trena for a distraction.. maybe my armor could have held up long enough for me to get the mine off.."

She growled slightly, and I knew she was resisting the urge to hit me. "It wouldn't have and you know it. She'd have put her gun on to your chest and killed you long before you could finish inputting the command."

I winced slightly at her tone, but jerked my head all the same. I knew that she was right, that the  _facts_  that she was saying were entirely correct.. but it didn't  _feel_ right.

"This is about the blood, isn't it?" Her head turned so that she could look at the fallen exoskeleton. I'd left it where I'd fallen, but even with the torso still swung open it was easy to see the four different shades of blood that covered most of the exposed surfaces. "What happened in here?"

I bit my lip, not really wanting to talk about it. "Nyn.."

"Cieran," a hand firmly took my chin and turned my head around so that I faced her. Her eyes drifted across my face before she leaned in to gently brush our lips together. "You are my Harath'krem, and today the person who saved me from a fate I'm trying very hard not to think about."

 _Can't really fault her for that.._ "It.. the True Sons, at the doorway where the entrance hall leads into the pool room. Maybe twenty or thirty of them.. I just.. charged." My voice failed me after that, my memory replaying some very nausea-inducing clips of the people.. the kids that I'd killed an hour ago.

"My Harath'krem..." she kissed me softly again. "What you did.. you did in battle."

I shook my head slightly. "Nyn.. I could have scared them off. Not hit them as hard. Just waded through to get past them.. I didn't  _have_ to kill them. They were.. fucking kids. Teenagers. Given guns and told to fight or be killed."

"They were still the enemy, Cieran." her voice was still gentle as she held me, "No one will fault you for what happened. They would have killed you, if you'd given them the chance."

" _I'll_  fault me." My voice turned bitter entirely on its own accord. "And that doesn't excuse anything. I had the option.. options.. I just.. didn't think."

"Why didn't you?" Hands reached up to touch my shoulders, and probably to prevent me from pushing her away or something similarly asinine. "What were you thinking about? I can't imagine that it was enjoyment at what was happening."

"No, of course not. It was.. I was.." I had to struggle to think. I'd been focusing so hard on  _not_ thinking about exactly what was happening then that recalling what had happened right beforehand was difficult. "Ghai and I were in the service corridor, heading to the pool room... Xerol had just called, said you and Re'hat were fighting her. I'd started trying to move faster, and Ghai yelled at me for making noise."

"Why were you moving too quickly?" She frowned slightly, all of her eyes narrowing. "I am not saying that you are not brave, but you are usually quite sensible about things like that." By which she meant I wasn't exactly the kind of person to run headlong into danger if I could help it, in my armor or not.

"I was.." I kept trying to think, and felt my skin start to flush as I remembered what I'd been thinking about. "You were.."

Her upper eyes blinked very slowly, "You.. charged through several squads of gang members, and nearly gave away your position, because I was in danger?"

"Well.."  _Was that really why I didn't stop to think? Just hammered my way through the fastest way I could?_ "I mean.. Nyn.. what I did.. those gang kids.."

She face flickered through a variety of expressions rapidly. Surprised, touched, worried, confused, proud.. her mouth quivered, as if she was trying to find something to say, but instead she simply started to lean in for another kiss when her words apparently failed her.

"Hate to break up your moment, but I need to speak with you two." A voice interrupted us before she could. Part of me was disappointed. The rest was relieved, feeling as though I didn't deserve it.

I turned as Nynsi released my face, frowning at the new arrival. "Captain Vasir. What are you doing here?"

Captain Shera Vasir could have been a clone of her sister from what I could remember of that dlc. Similar markings, appearance, voice.. though she lacked the mocking tones that I vaguely recalled. The I-Sec Captain crossed her arms across her dark blue armor, "Saving your alien asses. Even with their leader dead, there was more than enough of them left to kill you lot, especially with how you look like the tides deposited what's left of you as they rolled out."

"Thank you, Captain." Nynsi, more than familiar with how my mouth often ran without input from my brain when I was tired or out of it, spoke before I could, tilting her head slightly to the right. "But I believe my Harath'krem meant to ask what you needed to speak with us about? I konw that both you and my uncle received our transmission of the data we retrieved."

"I did." Vasir nodded. "And I'm sure the Blue Suns we took in will be happy to tell us more to stay out of the Eclipse's prisons in Nos Irrail. First, however, I wanted to thank Kean here for giving us the excuse to move in."

I blinked. "Huh?"

Her lips twitched. "You got a very good look at an obviously abused indentured servant. That's grounds for an immediate investigation to ensure that there haven't been any contract violations. And as you're technically an employee of the Asari Republics, I can post-stamp your attack here as an authorized effort to look into rumors that slaves were being illegally held on world."

"So.. no government problems from this fiasco?" I shrugged sluggishly, "Thanks, I think."

"You are welcome. Don't worry about your wounded either, if either of these groups want to try anything there's going to be a wall of my people between them and anyone trying to see them in the hospital."

"Thank you." Nynsi murmured, bowing her head sincerely.

The Captain waved it off, "The least we can do. This was the break we needed to finally convince those old bitches on the councils to let us get rid of these assholes. Between this and my sister finally getting her blue ass out here, your part in this should be over with."

"I wish that were true." Nynsi turned away, staring at the scorched remains of her mother's armor. "But my father.. he won't take this well."

"Right.. that was your mother." The Asari turned a touch uncomfortable as she glanced that way as well, "You all right? I have some people on staff you can talk to.."

My Tarath'shan shook her head, "I am quite content with her death. She gave me away to my uncle shortly after I was born, I have no memories of her as anything besides a stranger trying to control me and abduct me."

Vasir snorted, "Sounds like we should compare notes sometime. First thing Tela did when she got named Spectre was hunt our mother down and space that old bitch. Well, that's for later, sand on the beach anyway. You want the body?"

"No.. but I do believe that we could find a use for what's left of her equipment."

"Figured. I'll have someone yank her out of it and clean it before shipping it over. Kean, I'll send your armor with around then." I nodded slightly in thanks. "But for now you two should probably round your people up and head out. We'll get the rest of your aircars returned as well."

I blinked again. "You're doing an awful lot for us." An elbow hit my lightly armored gut, "Ah, Captain."

The Asari's lips twitched, "First glance over the data your people pulled is better than we could have hoped for. Full listings of what slaves they've sold, where they got them, and what corporations they've slipped them to. Financial history from the Blue Suns takeover nine months ago to now, even records on who they've brought in and sent out from the Trues."

A slow whistle escaped me, and even Nyn seemed a bit surprised at our haul.

"My techs are pretty sure that's just the tip of it, but they'll need some more time. I'm sure Xerol has some of his people trawling through it right now." A hand rose to the side of her head, frowning as something came across her radio. "This is Captain Vasir." her lips twisted. "No, I don't care what that bitch has to say about this being her jurisdiction." Eyes narrowed in irritation as whoever it was she was talking to kept going. "Tell her to kiss Athame's ass."

My lips twitched, and I hastily smothered my smile.

"And then tell her to talk to my sister if she has a problem with what I'm doing, this is a Spectre cleared operation." Her eyes rolled she flicked it off. "Fucking.. it's always something. You lot get going, sooner or later the local Captain is going to get pissed enough to show up and I'd rather not have to answer questions about you being here."

"Of course Captain," Nynsi gave another polite nod, and elbowed me again to ensure that I did as well. "I'm sure that we will speak later."

"We will." She gave us each a brusque nod before striding away, already yelling into her com-bead again as whoever she was talking to balked at having to tell an I-Sec Captain what she'd said.

My returned smile at the conversation quickly vanished as the distraction faded, my thoughts turning morose once more.

Sure, we'd gotten the information we'd needed, even though I'd killed Yi'ren. But was it worth all of the people we'd lost? All the people we were going to lose if the doctor's couldn't save them?

 _If Ghai doesn't make it.. Scales is going to be inconsolable. And if Che'hat doesn't.._ Re'hat and Che'hat had been the closest thing to male heirs that Xerol had, apparently they were much younger cousins of his.  _And if Nynsi makes it clear she'd rather be with me.. he probably would have named Re'hat as his heir. If Che'hat doesn't make it, us being together will be.. rough._

"Cieran, stop it." my chin was jerked roughly around, four black eyes narrowed at me from a few inches away. "Stop thinking about it."

"That's not exactly easy."  _Case in point, can still see that little Asian teenager screaming her head off and trying to hold her guts in her stomach._

 _"_ Nor is me trying to avoid contemplating just what she had intended for me." She moved closer, enough to brush our lips together for a brief moment. "Please, Harath'krem. Until we return to the mansion."

I let out a slow breath, closed my eyes, and nodded carefully once, then more firmly. "Ok.. ok. What do you need me to do?"

Her hands moved to gently touch my shoulders before dropping away entirely, "Find Marn and her people, and get them to the aircars. I'll find Yrrich and help him do the same."

"Got it."

We split apart, she headed towards the nearest gate to track down what was left of our covering team, while I headed towards where I'd last seen Marn.

Thankfully the I-Sec officers still casing the place, mostly cleaning up the gang and merc corpses, largely left me alone. They'd already pulled ours out, leaving them covered in body bags near their patrol cars, probably waiting on specialized vehicles to transport them to Khar'shan Minor for burial. A few gave me nods, which I returned. But mostly they ignored me, which I couldn't really blame them for. We weren't in the River District or Khar'shan Minor, I didn't actually know any of them, and they didn't know me. As far as they were concerned, I was probably just as bad as the gang I'd just helped cleanup.

"Marn!" My quarry glanced up as I approached the scorched air car she was leaning against. Apart from her, she had two fellow Batarians, but only one of the former Turian slaves. "Time to get going."

"Kean." She blew out a long puff of smoke before pulling her cheap pipe from her mouth and extinguishing it. "What about our people? Need them sent to Turian space?"

I was guessing she was referring to our dead. "Vasir's promised that she'll get them home."

"Right. Thareus, what about your friends?"

The Turian glanced between us for a long moment before speaking, his flanging voice weak with exhaustion. "If it pleases you ma'am, I think they'd prefer to rest with the others from our unit."

"I'm sure Xerol will approve." she stepped over, clapping him on the shoulder. It spoke volumes about how well he'd probably done in the fighting, given that she hadn't been able to stand him or his two friends even this morning. "Come on, let's follow the Harath'krem and get our asses home."

"I'm assuming that means him?" Thareus shook his head, "What sort of name is that?"

"Title." I corrected, turning as they picked up their guns and started to move with me. "It's got a lot of meanings apparently."

"Think of him as Nysnsi Shaaryak's bodyguard." Marn summarized something that would probably have taken a good hour of explaining and discussion to get across. "Xerol has two Asari, both former commandos. She has him."

"Ah." his mandibles quivered slightly, "I could see many uses for a bodyguard in powered armor."

I tipped my head right and rose that shoulder. I was finding more and more that I rather liked the motion, it served to shrug but indicated respect to the person speaking. Of course, that assumed the person was either Asari or Batarian, mostly the latter. The poor Turian didn't look like he understood the movements at all.

"He's a bit odd, even for a human. But you get used to him." a new voice called out merrily as we drew closer to the fleet of parked cars.

"Shut up Chen, bloody tit."

The sniper chuckled, raising a hand to return my insult with a gesture.

Nynsi just sighed, and finished helping a limping Yrrich get into one of the cars. Three others were already idling as his squad members started them up and started getting ready to lift off.

"Ignore him." Marn gestured for her people to spread out to take as many cars as they could. "Kean might be odd, but Chen's just an ass."

Thareus just shook his head, mandibles quivering in what I thought was amusement, and headed to the vehicle she'd indicated. Everyone else chuckled and spread out, and soon enough four more cars were idling as they started up.

I made my way to Nynsi's car, and she joined me once she had the exhausted squad leader into his own. A few minutes later we were lifting, a small squadron of aircars smoothly moving to match our rise. We stayed quiet, my head twisting around as I tried to keep watch for any obvious efforts to follow our departure, until we'd gotten up to altitude and joined the northwestern traffic stream.

We'd been moving along with the flow for about ten minutes before the call came in. " _Nynsi. Kean. This is Xerol."_

My hand reached out to flick the communications panel to speaker. "We're both here, airborne and on our way back."

" _I am aware, Captain Vasir has kept me updated._ " There was a short pause, " _Ghai and Che'hat's ambulance has reached the hospital, I will keep you both updated on their status."_

"Thank you, uncle." Nynsi frowned as she started punching in the commands to let the VI handle the rest of the trip. "But that hardly needed to be said."

" _We have.. worrying news. It would seem that one of the Blue Suns evaded surrendering long enough to transmit a message to Chacksin."_ We both started slightly. It hadn't even occurred to me that someone would try and send a message off-world during our attack, I'd been much more concerned that they'd try and summon up help from other True Son bases on-world. " _I received a recorded message a few moments ago, Aethyta was able to have her people back-trace it to Omega and confirm that it is indeed form my brother. It is split into three parts.. directed to each of us, specifically."_

I felt my cheek twitch slightly. "I take it he's not wishing us a good day and apologizing for trying to murder all of us?"

" _Indeed not. We will review them when you return."_

"Uncle.. send it now, if you would."

" _They are not.. pleasant to witness."_

She sighed, "I believe you. But.. with how poorly the battle went, and how much my Harath'krem have to speak about.. I believe we'd both prefer to lock ourselves away the moment we return. Better to get this over with now."

 _"I understand. Transmitting yours, Nyn, right now._ "

It didn't take long before the vid screen popped to life, revealing a Batarian male who looked like he'd gone a few steps beyond furious. He looked a bit like Xerol, enough that I could peg him as a relative at least, but it was clear that Nynsi had gotten pretty much all of her features from her mother. The only thing she and her father had in common were their long, almost elfin, ears.

" _Brat."_ his voice matched his expression, guttural and full of hate. " _You have gone beyond being merely disappointing, you have become something anathema to the very essence of what it means to be a Batarian! Not only do you refuse to accept your parents decisions, but you have allowed an alien, a HUMAN, to defile you! Any mercy or leniency I might have once shown you now has no chance of occurring. Once I have dealt with your pet creature, and my traitorous brother, I will personally handle your retrieval. You WILL perform the actions for which you were meant, but only once I have exacted sufficient pain as payment for your transgressions."_

His lips twisted into a cruel smile, his sharp teeth almost gleaming. " _I look forwards to seeing you soon, daughter."_

Nynsi's hands curled into fists and shook in anger, but apart from a long growl she stayed silent, probably saving her explosion until after the next one. I'd have grabbed her hand in mine, to try and calm her maybe, but I my fingernails were digging into my palms at the threats he was throwing.

The video flickered, and his voice again started up. " _Defiler. Creature. Faithless beast. I lack the words to properly describe you, cretin. I know what you truly are, and from which pit you emerged. That such a beast not only dared to lay with my wayward spawn, but killed my beloved wife.. you will die as such an animal should. I will tear out your eyes. I will shatter your teeth. I will rip your very tendons from your bones and let her listen to your screams. And only when I have shattered whatever excuse for a mind you have, when you have finally lost any sense of yourself and truly become nothing more than a breathing corpse.. I will let her see you."_

The pity, self-loathing, and general horror I'd felt over what I'd done vanished in moments. "No asshole. I killed you wife. And I will fucking end you before you can even try to touch me, or Nynsi."

"Uncle.." Nynsi sounded just as angry as I was. If his goal had been to scare us, it had failed rather significantly. "Was yours in the same vein?"

" _Yes._ " Xerol didn't sound angry, he just sounded.. tired. " _Though a bit longer, and he added some additional details. He was apparently unaware of our theories, and felt the need to detail exactly what plans we had ruined and how I was a disgrace to the Hegemony."_

"Were we on the mark?" I couldn't take my eyes off the now still image, trying to memorize the face staring back at me.

" _Roughly, yes. However, he did let something slip in his anger. It would seem that their plan is not officially sanctioned by the Council of Patriarchs or the military's High Council. If I had to guess, they are being supported almost entirely by the Fist of Khar'shan, a political group dedicated to starting open warfare between the Hegemony and the Alliance."_

"Uncle, while that is interesting, that does not tell me how to find that man and kill him." Nynsi growled.

Xerol actually chuckled, " _My dear.. don't ever change. Knowing my brother, I do not doubt that he will be coming to us as soon as he is able to find a method to do so. "_

 _"_ Good." we both spoke at the same time, and she gave me a cool little grin.

" _Perhaps not._ " Whatever mirth he had felt faded quickly. " _We are down to little more than a single squad to defend us, without I-Sec. Even when the wounded begin to return, the forces we know he commands outnumber us by an order of magnitude."_

I winced slightly. "So we need I-Sec."

" _With the evidence we have gathered, they will be glad to help us.. with the True Sons. I can even state that I am reasonably sure that they will handle the gang from here on out. But we could hardly ask them to keep a small army on standby until he arrives on world and makes his move."_ He gave a quiet sigh. " _Even Vasir would not be able to manage that. If he moved openly, which I doubt he's stupid enough to do, they could of course assist.. but I would assume that he will either strike us too quickly for them to react, or attack by stealth and subterfuge. All things considered, we have only one real option."_

It was Nynsi's turn to wince. "The Eclipse."

"I thought Sederis was staying out of this." I glanced between the radio and Nyn, "I mean, why would she help us if I-Sec is going to clean up her problem for her?"

" _That is for me to attempt to determine._ " He didn't exactly sound confident. " _If I cannot.. I have contingencies that I am preparing, but I will inform you of those as needed. For now, please be safe on your return."_

 _"_ We will be uncle, we're a half hour out now."

_"Good. I will allow you to retire tonight, and will speak with you both tomorrow once I have returned."_

He cut the channel, and silence temporarily filled the cabin.

"So. Now I'm fucking pissed." I admitted, irritably snapping a hand out to get rid of Chackins's face.

"As am I." Her lower eyes narrowed as her upper ones flicked over to glance at me. "But I'm also worried."

"Yeah.." some of the anger bled out, the crash quickly bringing back the thoughts I'd been barely holding back since she'd asked me to keep it together. "That too. We barely survived your.. Yi'ren, and something tells me he's way more dangerous."

"Possibly. That may be relative, Harath'krem." A hissing sigh escaped between her teeth. "There were also his words."

I growled. "I'm not letting him do anything to you."

"I know." a hand reached out to brush against my arm. "That is who you are, and do not forget for a moment that I appreciate it. It wasn't what he said to me, as disgusting as he was, it was expected."

"You mean, it was something he said to me?" My brow furrowed as I went through it. "Beyond some details about he's going to torture me, I didn't really hear anything that worrying."

"He said that he knew who you truly are, and where you're from" she reminded me quietly, her fingers squeezing. "It's.. possible that he knows something about you?"

 _Not likely._ "And how would he have managed that when Aethyta hasn't been able to?"

"The Shadow Broker."

 _Ok.. even he would just have found out that a strange human appeared out of nowhere on Illium. Which wouldn't really mean much._ A new, far more worrying thought hit me.  _But if he told Chacksin that.. he could have taken it as a golden opportunity to invent a past for me, and pay that Yahg another fortune to generate it... fuck, I wish I hadn't though of that._

Now that I had, my paranoid brain was running at about a million miles an hour, coming up with dozens of possible backgrounds that would cause everyone to loath me. It wasn't exactly hard, most of them started with 'Alliance Intelligence' and then started adding brutally anti-Batarian events to go with it.

"Cieran." Her voice made me turn my head around, blinking furiously as I tried to throttle down. "Whatever he found, you aren't that person anymore. You are my Harath'krem. That is all I care about."

I bit my lip slightly. "Nyn... what if it's something-"

"No, Cieran. You are my Harath'krem. Whatever you might have been before you were attacked.. as far as I am concerned, that person is dead, whatever Chacksin ul Shaaryak might say."

Very much never having been attacked by an Asari me writhed guiltily inside. A few flashes of young faces, screaming in pain, just made it worse. "Nyn.. I don't think I deserve that."

"That is for me to decide." she leaned across the center console and kissed my cheek. "And I have made my decision."

"I.." I couldn't look at her, the memories still playing clips through my mind. "Nyn.."

"Cieran," She'd apparently removed her gloves at some point, because warm fingers gently brushed through my goatee to grab my chin and turn me. "Look at me, please."

I winced, but rose my eyes up enough to look into her lower set.

"You are my Harath'krem." Her hand drifted across my face to cup my cheek, "I named you to that title for your nobility, your honor.. and I'm sorry that both are causing you pain. I know we haven't.. been together for very long, but you know that I care about you, right?"

"Yeah." A small smile made my lips curl slightly. "You're making it pretty clear."

"Good." hers twitched too, and she leaned in for a soft kiss. "Because it should be."

"It is." I assured her, slowly leaning in to taste her lips for a long moment. "I'm sorry for.. all of this, not being at my best right now."

"It happens to all of us." We shared a longer kiss, her taste filling my mouth as our mouths moved. There was a little pleased sound as her hand slid to wrap around the back of my head, fingers playing with my hair. Eventually we had to break apart and steady our breathing, settling back into our separate chairs as we drew closer to the borders of Khar'shan Minor.

I watched the city lights start flickering on below us as the sun set. "Well.. one down. One more to survive, right?"

"We will." Our hands met again. "We will deal with my uncle's brother, and then we'll be able to settle into life again."

I had to make myself smile and nod, quickly turning back to the sprawling city beneath us.

_I wish Nyn.. I wish._

* * *

**End Act II: The Siege**

**Date: 9-7-2180 (Five Months, Seven Days since Arrival)**

* * *

**Author's Fun Fact: The Batarian Government**

_The Batarian Hegemony is hardly a unified power, something that has not helped them with their issues with the Citadel and Alliance. While the military High Council might 'officially' rule the Hegemony, but in reality the merchant caste's council on Khar'shan and the Council of Patriarchs both have immense political power._

_This often leads to circumstances where the people who control the governments are at odd with people who run the economy, with the highest houses on Khar'shan thoroughly disgusted with both of them._

_The result is significant levels of infighting at all levels of government, with the fighting often going beyond mere words to include assassinations and open attacks._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was pretty hard to write.. fairly depressing overtones to go with Cieran's mental issues. Hopefully I did an all right, I know the emotions kind of go up and down a bit, but that was kind of the point. He's not exactly stable at the moment, though Nyn is acting as his anchor... for now.
> 
> There won't be a time skip before the next Act, we're pretty much going straight in. Things will be.. interesting as the amount of activity between the other characters starts to ramp up. Between Xerol reaching out to Sederis, Tela Vasir's imminent arrival, I-Sec taking over the fight against the True Sons, and Chacksin making his own moves.. complicated will probably get a new definition, much to Cieran's unhappiness.
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	25. The Riposte

**Act III: The Lamentation**

**Date: 09-10-2180 (Five Months, Fifteen Days since Arrival)**

* * *

"You're getting faster at getting that back together." Trena observed from her chair, idly twirling her new cane back and forth.

I grunted, tugging hard on some of the control wiring running through my exoskeleton's chest before stepping back. "It wasn't in that bad of shape really, compared to last time at least. Just some modulators and control wiring to splice back together, few reinforcements to be made.. Just wish we had the time to scavenge that thing over there."

That thing was Yi'ren armor, her body extracted and the entire thing hosed down before being left in a corner of the massive garage. Eventually I'd get around to pulling it apart and using it to upgrade my own to something to closer to combat spec, but for now.. Chaskin's threats were still looming over the mansion, and no one was really sure how much time we had until he showed up. Given the usual time it took to travel from Omega to Illium, our best guess was that he could arrive as early as tomorrow, but no one was sure he'd rush things like that.

"Let's hope that asshole doesn't have something like that."

"Here's hoping." I muttered. "Maybe he'll be a pistol guy or something. Easier to deal with than another psychopath in powered armor."

"Yeah. Still think he'll make his move with the Eclipse and I-Sec tearing apart their patsies?" she mumbled a bit as she took a few puffs from her pipe, "I mean, sure he might get us, but after that.. they'll be on him like a pack of razorfish."

"I killed his wife scales. I don't think we can assume he's planning on surviving past getting his revenge." Reaching down, I grabbed one of the last plates of armor and hauled it up, grunting a bit as I fitted it back into place. "Hell, we don't really know much about him. Xerol's admitted he's changed a lot since they were exiled for pissing off their grandfather as teenagers."

"Yeah.." I caught her blowing out a long cloud of smoke out of the corner of my eye, "Tides take him, I hate dealing with this kind of thing. Give me a straight up fight any day to this kind of shit."

I almost opened my mouth to point out that she wouldn't be involved in the fighting in either case, but thought better of it almost immediately. Of course, my tact was ruined when I floundered for a different conversation topic and found another sensitive issue. "How's Ghai doing?"

A wince flickered across her face before she diverted her attention entirely to the pipe she was holding. "Still drifting in and out. The shock did a lot of damage to her system.. doc's are worried her biotics will be too unstable to use, maybe for the rest of her life."

I couldn't help but wince as well. Trena would, eventually, be as good as she had been before her injuries. It wasn't sounding like Ghai would ever fully recover, even if she had several centuries to slowly heal. The Asari equivalent of hypovolemic shock was apparently even more damaging to various organs and nerve bundles than the human version, and they were looking at either cloning or finding donors for their versions of kidneys and liver. Then there was the issue of fitting her for a cybernetic forearm, which was worryingly low on the doctor's priority list given all of the other problems she was still having.

"At least she made it." My voice was quiet.

"Yeah. Thank Athame for her favors I suppose. How's little Shaaryak taking it?"

Grabbing my omni-gel dispenser, I started applying it to the edges of the plating to help secure it. "She's.. all right for someone whose mother just tried to abduct her and killed two of her cousins in front of her. Trying not to think about it for the most part, focusing on Chacksin, what I-Sec is doing in their campaign.. that kind of thing."

"Not exactly healthy, but suppose I can't blame the stuck-up bitch."

I shot her a dirty look.

"Whatever ape. How are you two doing?" Her eyes narrowed behind another cloud of smoke. "With Che'hat and Re'hat both dead.. doesn't that put a lot of pressure on your girl to find a stocky Batarian guy to crap out a kid with?"

"Yes." My hand may or may not have twitched slightly. "Xerol hasn't said anything yet, but she's sure it's a matter of time."

"It wouldn't be a love thing you know. Just appearances, making the kid, then you and her can keep going and he can fade off wherever."

"Scales.." The dispenser hit my toolbox with more force than had been strictly necessary, and I had to blow out a long breath to calm down. "Seriously not ok with that idea, all right?"

She shook her head slightly, "You humans.. just like Turians, so possessive."

"Yes. I am." My legs carried me around to the other side of the armor, looking it over as best I could to see if there were any glaring issues. "I am possessive and I don't share when it comes to partners, all right?"

The very idea of Nynsi.. being  _with_  someone else was enough to both make me nauseous and furious. We were together, and as far as I concerned, that meant no one else needed to be involved. Nyn, though worried about Xerol's opinion, didn't seem to mind overly much.. she seemed to find my new found possessive streak both attractive and endearing.

Blue hands spread apart as she leaned back, "Calm down ape, I get it all right? Goddess.. don't blood rage on me."

"Sorry.." I shook my head, staring at the massive block that was my armor. "Sore topic, all right?"

"Right, right." she nodded, absently extinguishing her pipe. "You done for the day? Almost time for our meeting with Aethyta."

"Yeah.. it's as good as it's going to get until we have a good month or two when no one is trying to kill us." I started putting the rest of my tools away, more or less. Honestly less. It was a bad habit I'd picked up from her, just tossing whatever I had wherever it fit instead of where it was 'supposed' to go. It was enough to drive Xerol's mechanics insane, at least until they'd basically given up working in what was quickly becoming 'my' area of the garage.

"Well at least it'll be good to go the next time some asshole tries to murder us all." There was a deep grunt as she lifted herself up, and I tried not to notice how her arm shook slightly as she leaned on the cane. "Come on, we'll still be early but at least she won't be able to bitch about us being late."

Pausing long enough to wipe some of the oil and grease off my hands and face, I caught up to her easily enough before slowing my stride to match her hobbled pace. She didn't say anything, but her head moved barely in thanks.

"She say what this was about?"

Trena gave an Asari shrug, "Said she'd bring us up to speed on what Vasir and Sederis are up to, and what else she's found on Chacksin."

I grunted. "I'm guessing she meant Captain Vasir, given that her illustrious sister hasn't bothered to show up yet?"

"Safe assumption ape."

Aethtya was beyond annoyed with Tela Vasir at this point. She'd been confused but accepting when the Spectre had indicated that she was finished with her current assignment and on her way. But even though her network of waitresses and bartenders had confirmed that Vasir's personal cruiser had docked at one of the orbital stations the same day we'd launched our attack, there hadn't been any word from her. I had no idea if that meant that she was waiting on instructions from the Broker given that we'd retrieved our evidence and given it to I-Sec, or if she was already on world and doing her own thing quietly.

"Think she'll have a job for us?" I glanced at her, "She's still sort of our boss."

"Athame's perfect ass I hope so. I'm sick of being stuck in this damn mansion, even if I just end up driving the pair of you somewhere."

"Well, here's hoping for a stake out or something." I'd be bored out of my mind, but if it got scales out the mansion for a while I'd put up with it.  _Of course, being in a car with her and Nyn together for six or seven hours... best not to think about that part._

"Here's hoping." she muttered, slowing as we neared the usual conference room.

Lengthening my stride a bit, I hit the door panel for her, and got a whack on my shins from her cane as she walked past for doing so. Muttering uncomplimentary things about her parentage, I followed her in to find Nyn already primly seated at the table, wearing what was for her a shockingly casual shirt and pants. She had a steaming cup of tea beside her as she flicked through notes on a tablet, her upper eyes shifting as we entered.

"T'laria. Harath'krem." her voice was notably warmer on my title than on Trena's name.

"Little Shaaryak." My friend sounded about as glad to see her, "I thought you'd be fashionably late or some shit."

Nyn's cheek might have twitched, but said nothing after seeing my pleading expression. I clapped Trena on the shoulder, harder than usual to remind her I didn't care for the two of them sniping, and then slipped past to settle into the chair next to my Tarath'shan.

She patted the back of my hand as I sat, glancing over at what she was reading. "Still going over finances?"

"It is rather important Cieran."

I rolled my eyes. "Yes, but that's all you've been doing for the last two days. You've barely taken a break at all."

There was a quiet sigh, "Things are rather in disarray right now, and my Uncle needs his assets to be properly aligned for his negotiations with both Illium's Board of Directors and with Sederis."

Trena grunted. "He still handling those assholes?"

"I'm assuming you mean the board." Nynsi tossed her tablet down, some of her haughty irritation starting to show. "Dantius is still trying to slow things down with procedural details, but he has Tevos and Iandanni supporting him. I believe he is meeting with Ullai today, if he can gain her support they can force the Director to back down or face a vote of no-confidence."

_Fucking Illium.._

Illium's political status in the galaxy was a bit.. complex. On paper, they were a corporate sponsored world, much like Noveria, which is what allowed things like indentured servitude and red sand sellers who just needed an easy to obtain permit. But unlike the ice-ball from the first game, Illium lacked a private army and fleet to defend it, and had to rely on the Asari Republic to keep the predators in the Terminus at arms length. Combine that with I-Sec being little more than an extension of C-Sec, that left the Board of Director's in a perilous balancing act. One one hand, the shareholders who demanded profits, morals be damned, and on the other, the governments who tolerated their lax laws for the economic advantages.. but only to a point.

Which is the exact line Xerol was using to leverage his involvement for concessions, particularly towards relaxing the embargo towards the Hegemony. I wasn't quite sure what his end game was, he was playing his cards rather close to the vest, but he'd assured everyone that the primary goal was to make sure that our disruption of their efforts to take over the Blue Suns wouldn't cause them to send SIU teams after us.

_Let's just hope he succeeds.. A break after this would be nice._

"The Republic still rumbling about pulling their fleet back?" I glanced between the two women. "Or did they manage to calm that down?"

"Captain Vasir and her superiors spoke with C-Sec's executor yesterday." Nynsi confirmed, taking a small sip of her tea, her upper eyes closing in pleasure at the taste. "She's assured my Uncle that they were able to convince him that they are handling the situation, and that such drastic measures aren't required."

There was a dry chuckle, "By the goddess, that would have been a fun conversation to sit in on."

I snorted, but before I could reply the door clicked and swung open to reveal Aethyta, wearing a dark para-military uniform that probably would fit well under armor.

"Wonders never cease, figured at least one of you would be late." the gruff woman shut the door behind her, striding quickly around us to the head of the table. "Figured it was time we all sat down and had a little chat, since you all are stuck working for me anyway."

Trena snorted. "My shop is still there you old fish."

"I work for you by choice, I hardly need to." Nynsi pointed out.

I just shrugged. "I could go back to working for scales here. Or just lounge around the mansion."

Aethtya rolled her eyes at all of us, "Smart-asses. Local news first. Vasir and her girls have taken out two major gang strongholds in the last few days, they're mounting up to take out another one today. The rest of those lazy tits in I-Sec should be hitting True Son properties over the next few days, and as best as my people can tell, it shouldn't take them long to finish them off."

I found myself nodding slowly, "That 'actual' True Son we met said that the Blue Suns were shuttling their better people off world, and keeping the better weapons for themselves as well. If most of the mercs died at the treatment plant, all that's left are those," there was a brief stutter in my speech as the image of a young Turian screaming as I killed him, flashed, "kids."

The Matriarch nodded, apparently choosing to step over my pause while Nynsi found my hand with hers, "Between that and Sederis handling cleaning out the corporations that were stupid enough to buy anyone, they shouldn't last more than a few weeks."

Trena frowned, thumping her cane in a good imitation of Xerol, "What about the slaves? What's Sederis going to do with them?"

"Word is she's offering provisional membership to any of the usual races if they want some payback. The rest she's just setting loose on the streets, I've got some of my people watching to make sure none of her Eclipse get any ideas." Her fingers drummed slowly on the table, "And I made it clear to her that I wouldn't be happy if any of them did. I might be old, but she knows I'd drag her to the deeps with me if we tangled."

She glanced between the three of us again, "You three have done a good job keeping a low profile since your raid, goddess knows I didn't need to deal with more questions from those bitches on Thessia. But since Vasir's sister hasn't bothered to show her blue ass up yet, I'm going to need you three to make some runs for me."

"What kind of 'runs'?" Nynsi leaned forwards slightly, "Regrettably I have a great many duties right now, re-organizing our finances and ensuring that the families of the lost are compensated properly."

"That's why you get to stay here." Dark brown eyes flicked directly to mine. "And by runs I mean helping move my people around, setting up a few stake outs, and possibly shadowing me on a few things I have to take care of. All of which leads us to a problem."

_Here we go.._

Something must have shown on my face because she nodded slowly. "That's right Kean, I still don't trust you. I don't care, T'laria," she cut off Trena even as she opened her mouth, "That you do. Or that Xerol named him to that title. If he was actually attacked by an Ardat Yakshi he'd be dead. None of my people can find any records of someone like you showing up on world, and neither can any of my peers in the business."

"Ok.." I had to fight not to lick my lips or otherwise look as nervous as I suddenly felt. ".. so what's the plan?"

"It's taken me longer than I'd have liked, but you have an appointment in an hour at Nos Astra Prime." She crossed her thick arms, "With a doc that I trust personally. She's going to check you out for Floating Mind. If you do have it, she'll be able to give us a time frame until you can at least manage a shallow bond. And if you don't.."

Nynsi's eyes, all four of them, narrowed as Aethtya's voice trailed off. "I don't like what you are insinuating about my Harath'krem, Matriarch."

"Tough shit girl. We're in a riptide here, and I'm not keeping him involved if he's been lying to us."

"Nyn," I had to fight through a dry throat, patting the back of her hand gently. "It's all right. I can't blame her for not trusting me. We'll get this over with and be back in time for dinner."

"I'm going with at least." She protested, a set of eyes each dedicated to me and Aethyta.

"Neither of you are, and that's it. Xerol's backing me on this girl, so don't push it."

My Tarath'shan rocked back at the news that her Patriarch was on Aethyta's side. "He.. what?"

"He thinks this is going to vindicate your alien lover here." She looked irritated at Xerol's faith in me. "And he's willing to let me have my way with one of  _his_ people to assuage my paranoid suspicions."

Trena snorted slightly, but kept her face straight at the glare that swiftly turned her way.

_So.. what the hell am I going to do about this?_

I sure as hell didn't have Floating Mind. That was nothing more than a clever bit of fiction and falsified paperwork to dissuade young Maidens from trying to sleep with me. Which meant that, in less than an hour now, I was going to have a lot of fucking explaining to do and no idea where to start. Regardless of what I said, she was going to be more than a little pissed off that I hadn't been truthful..

Nynsi and Trena still both looked mutinous, but left after making sure that I, and more importantly Aethyta, know that they both believed me. Which.. made me writhe a bit inside with guilt.

Nyn unknowingly twisted the dagger in a bit more by quietly assuring me that she would personally help the chef prepare some of my favorites for when I returned. It was hard to kiss her gently as we stood in the hall, and turn to head to the garage.

Aethyta didn't say anything as we moved through the mansion, making sure that she was close enough that I couldn't try and bolt or anything like that. Not that I planned to, that would only make my bad situation worse at this point.

 _So.. should I be honest? Do I have a choice?_ I didn't think that I did. I could remember.. enough, I thought, to convince her that, at the very least, I knew things I shouldn't have any ability to know.  _Lead off with knowing about Liara and Benezia? Or her parentage? Really the only things known about her.. not about to go on about a Prothean beacon inside the Temple of Athame unless we're alone in an sound-proofed box somewhere._

Her car turned out to be of the same make and model as Nyn's, but even to my relatively inexperienced eyes I could tell that it had been massively upgraded. The doors looked like they weighed half a ton each, and it would surprise me at all if there were guns hidden under the hood like a Bond car.

She waited until we were off the ground and headed north before speaking. "You're nervous kid."

"Yeah." I didn't see the point in denying it, my piss-poor acting skills were nowhere near enough to fool her anyway.

"Anything you want to tell me before we get there?"

I rubbed at the back of my neck, and thought about spilling everything right there. To this day I'm not sure why I didn't. "No.. Let's see what the test shows. Maybe you can filter through my mind in a couple of months."

There was a dark grunt to that, and nothing more was said. The trip both seemed to flash by and last forever, in that peculiar way that they do when you're dreading the destination. One moment I was wondering how exactly I would explain everything, the next the massive form of Illium's largest hospital was coming into view.

Aethtya found us a parking spot by being more willing than anyone else to simply shoulder her way past and under anyone trying to land there.

_Here we go then.._

I briefly tried to relax, laughed mentally at the very idea, and followed her as she led me inside. It was.. a lot like any of the other hospitals I might have been to, though packed with Asari instead of humans. A few glanced our way, but most were too busy with their own reasons for being there. We made our way through the main atrium to an elevator, the few others who might have joined us quickly changing their minds at seeing a Matriarch tapping her foot impatiently.

Reaching the appropriate floor took a matter of moments, the metal box depositing us in a small reception area.

"Ah, Matriarch Aethyta." A perky maiden, her skin dusky blue, gave us both a broad smile from behind her desk. "You're right on time. Doctor Sayran is already ready for you, second door on the left."

Aethtya grunted something, and I quietly thanked her as we moved down the hall and through the doorway.

Doctor Sayran proved to be what I thought was another Matriarch, her skin a shockingly dark blue as she glanced up from her omni-tool. "Aethyta."

"Sayran."

The doctor glanced at me, "So, you're the one this old fish is all worried about. Come on, sit down in the chair here. Let's get this waste of time over with."

My boss glared irritably at the other Asari. "Sayran.."

"There's documentation from the River District that he has the syndrome." the doctor flicked her omni-tool off with an annoyed flick. "Six months might have seen a slight lessening in the affects but it will probably still be another six at least before he could even contemplate a shallow bond with a professional counselor."

"Humor me."

"You're here, aren't you?" I felt my lips twitch as I warmed up to the doc, although any mirth quickly died as I stepped past Aethyta, glancing at the chair. There really wasn't anything terribly threatening about it... which didn't really mean anything.

"So.. how is this going to work?" I was curious in spite of myself, finding the chair surprisingly comfortable as I slowly sat on it.

The Doctor moved behind me, fiddling with something with one hand while another started to pull my hair off my temples. "We use a combination of electrical impulses and eezo fields to simulate a bond, and use equipment read how your brain reacts to the interaction."

"Won't that.. you know, cause brain damage and seizures?" _If I actually had it._

"If I was a hack and turned the power all the way up, yes. We start at extremely low levels, and given the usual time frame for a human with the condition, you might feel some mild nausea at the worst. If anything does start to spike there's cut-offs to prevent any damage." A hand patted my shoulder reassuringly. "There's a garbage pail to your right in case you need to use it, but you should be all right."

"Oh. Ok then." I blew out a breath as she gently attached pads to each of my temples, then another set below my eyes, before finishing up with a set on the back of my neck.

I did catch Aethtya surreptitiously locking the door when Sayran wasn't looking, but I couldn't really blame her for that.

"Right then. Hands here," she guided them to the arm rests, "And relax. Blow out a long breath." I did so. "As I said, you'll probably feel some mild discomfort and nausea. One more long breath..." I gave a long exhale, and she flicked something on her omni-tool.

Something powered up behind me, a quiet thrum filling my ears as I felt the tell-tale effects of an element zero core start to affect reality around me. Tickling pricks darted across each of the pads attached to me, and everything seemed all right.

Then shards of razor sharp glass slammed into my head, originating from each of the pads, and my entire body practically lifted off of the chair in shock. I tried to say something, but my mouth wouldn't respond to what my brain was trying to tell it.

I had a short glimpse of the Doctor frantically deactivating everything while Aethyta, her eyes wide, moved to help, before my eyes rolled back and everything went dark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a bit shorter than most, mostly because that was the right cut-off point, otherwise this chapter and the next will basically just run into each other. This is another chapter that's gone through a few rewrites, so I'm hoping it works all right.
> 
> So, we've got a lot of politics occurring in the background, and a general tone of worry about when Chacksin is going to make his move. More importantly for Cieran, Aethtyta's continuing suspicion has led to him receiving an actual test for the condition that the Matriarch and Cieran have claimed that he has.. with unexpected results.
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	26. The Silence

Waking up reminded me a lot of when I first woke up on this god forsaken planet. My mouth felt like it was stuffed full of cotton, my head was throbbing with pain, and I seriously didn't want to open my eyes.

"He's waking up."

_"_ Already?" Aethyta's voice drifted closer. "You just said you didn't know when he'd snap out of it, it's barely been five minutes."

"I  _guessed._ " The Doctor primly corrected her. "I've never seen a condition this bad. I've never  _heard_ of it. If he was an Asari he would be foaming from the mouth and hemorrhaging blood in his brain from the initial reaction."

Well. That certainly didn't sound good. Yay for being human?

"He obviously isn't."

"No. His vitals spiked until the emergency cut-off shut the equipment off. The only thing I'm recording now is his version of a migraine and some aches and pains." There was a long pause before she made an exasperated sound. "Which I would expect but only if he'd just been attacked  _yesterday."_

"So what in the goddess's name did we just see?"

"The sensors indicate he's got Floating Mind, but.." her voice trailed off. "Aethtyta, this isn't some random rape by one of our people. Even the ones who.. go for that kind of thing are usually after something. A specific idea, memory, an emotion, something like that. Look at the screen.. his  _entire_ nervous system, every bit of it, lit up the moment the connection was made. His mind started to go haywire at a  _brush._ "

Aethyta apparently didn't have any problems understanding her. "You're saying someone deliberately bonded with him, then ravaged him through it until he had Floating Mind. On purpose."

"You're lucky to be alive young human." Something cool fell across my forehead. "And I feel as if I should apologize."

"It's on me." There were a few footsteps and an annoyed sigh. "Goddess damn it all. I wasn't expecting you to actually have it."

"I told you about the certificate-"

"Which was faked. There's no record of him ever being there, the Doctor who signed it was paid off to do without examining him, but there's nothing to indicate who did it."

_Not sure how I feel about the Matriarch being good enough to stay under Aethyta's radar... and just what the hell did she do to me?_

I risked opening my eyes, wincing slightly at the light speared into them. I blinked several times, slowly at first before speeding up a bit as my eyes adjusted. I was laying on the floor of the room we'd been in, with only the two old Asari with me. Which was probably a good thing.

"...water? Damage?"

"Aethyta?" Sayran jerked her chin to the sink, while she focused on taking readings from me with her omni-tool. "The connection was brief enough that there shouldn't be any lasting damage.. but you shouldn't have had a reaction like that to begin with."

"Ok.." I gratefully reached up and took the water cup that Aethyta had filled, spilling some of it as I gulped it while still laying down. It didn't do much to help my pounding skull, but it did wonders for clearing up my throat. "Headache?"

"Should desist shortly."

Aethyta turned back to the doctor, "How long do you think it would be until he could bond?"

"Never?" Sayran shook her head. "I said six months before I realized how much damage he'd taken. If he..." she turned to regard me seriously, "Kean, seriously. If any of our people actually tried to bond with you, the best case scenario is you survive with some severe damage, but you'd be blessed by the goddess to have that happen. You'd probably be dead within a few moments of forming the full connection."

I winced and finished my water off before wiping my face.

"And the Asari?"

Sayran snorted, sharking her head at Aethyta. "If she was as old as us, or maybe was an extremely skilled good bonding counselor.. she  _might_ survive being in his head when he dies. And even if she did, she wouldn't get anything out of his head beyond whatever flashes he's having while he's seizing up."

It was the Matriarch's turn to wince.

The Doctor just shook her head, then frowned at something on her omni-tool. "If you would excuse me, I need to check on other cases of humans with the condition, maybe its something about your species.. I didn't see anything specific in my last checks, but maybe I missed something. I'll double-check what evidence exists to give you a long term prognosis given.. what we saw here."

She rose and moved back to her terminal, apparently becoming instantly absorbed in her research. The pair of us watched her for a few moments before Aethyta turned to stare down at me, her face carefully neutral. "So... Dammit kid, I fucked up on this one."

"Can't blame you for not trusting me.." I winced at another throb, "Could do without the pain though."

She snorted. "Let say I owe you one. Maybe two."

"We'll call it one," I closed my eyes for a long moment, "And I don't end up staying here overnight for observation."

She gave the Doctor, who was apparently ignoring us entirely, a glance. "You sure?"

"Honestly this isn't anywhere nearly as bad as waking up the first time." A hand rose to rub slowly at my head. "And I'd rather not have to deal with Nyn and Trena showing up in an hour and exploding on us."

"I could handle them.. but deal." There was a sigh, "I was hoping for answers but all you're giving me is more goddess damned questions. Why in the deeps would someone do that to you? Easier just to slit your throat and dump the body in the ocean. And this wasn't some maiden on a sand trip, you'd need a lot of experience with bonds do that much specific damage."

I winced at the image.

"Someone who didn't want to kill you, openly or not, but didn't want you to remember who you were. Or be able to bond with anyone who might be able to put your memories back together." She growled. "Need a damn drink to deal with this. Sayran, we good to go or what?"

The doctor glanced over as I slowed pushed myself to a seated position, resting back on my hands. "I'd rather he stay overnight for observation."

Aethtya just stared at her.

"Fine, want to risk his life some more today, that's on you. You feel any lingering sensations, hallucinations, coordination problems, get back here as fast as you can all right?" She looked down her nose at both of us, "This is serious."

_I survived it before._ I groaned as I started to get up to my feet.  _I'll survive it this time._ "I know doc. I'd rather my brain stay intact too."

"Aethyta, I'll mail you what I find. There's more cases than I thought.. I might have to talk with some of I-Sec's medics as well." Her screen flickered as she turned back to it. "Remember what I said Mr. Kean."

"I will." I managed to shuffle past her on my own, not stopping until I was out of the room where I put a hand out on the wall and expelled a long breath, trying not to throw up.

Aethyta slipped out behind me, closing the door behind us before grabbing my other arm and throwing it around her neck.

"Seriously?" It came out as a mutter as she helped haul me along. "I can walk on my own."

Just

"Shut up and accept the help kid."

Not seeing an alternative, I did so.

The perky receptionist gaped at us a bit as we moved past, but didn't say anything after Aethtya had firmly shaken her head in her direction. That scene repeated itself after the elevator deposited us in the atrium, several nurses or doctors starting in our direction before backing off when Aethyta gave them severe looks.

I was able to shake her arm off about the time we made it to the doors, my legs firming up a bit beneath me. She still kept a wary on me in a way that reminded me of Trena, but I managed to get back to her car on my own.

"So.." I tried not to sigh in pleasure as I leaned back in the passenger seat.

"More damned questions kid." The Matriarch quickly set the autopilot to take us back to the mansion before settling back to rub at her forehead in an almost identical manner to Liara. "All right. Xerol told me what you told him. You woke up in your apartment with a Matriarch who wouldn't name herself, and a corpse."

"Yes." I wracked my brain, trying to remember exactly what I'd told Xerol. "Actually.. it felt a lot like the test. I did, I mean. Pounding head, hard to talk, everything hurt.. though worse, like I said."

Aethtya frowned. "She must have just finished whatever it was she did to you."

_Yeah. She did all right._ "She wasn't.. squeamish about the body or anything. Actually she seemed way more concerned about what I knew than about the fact that there was a corpse in the room.."

"What did she ask?"

"My name.. where I was from.." I frowned, doing my damnedest to tell as close to the truth as I could. "If I knew what she was, where I was. She had two assistants come in and take the body out, then told me she'd put me in touch with Trena to help me.. adjust I guess."

She kept on frowning, staring at nothing as she seemed to think that over.

"I've heard about her. Or someone like her." her finger started to drum on the control panel. "But never connected to something like this. Let me guess, she offered a few threats to stop you from doing any looking of your own?"

"Something like that." I glanced away, not exactly proud of that entire sequence of events in hind-sight.

"Well, you're going to stay out of it and let me look into it." Brown eyes narrowed slightly. "I don't care much for someone who's capable of doing that much damage to someone, human or not, being free to walk around. At least an Ardat Yakshi can't help what they are. This tides taken bitch chose to do what she did."

"Um.. all right?" I shifted uncomfortably, not really sure how to feel about that. On one hand, it meant someone was actually looking into that old hag. On the other, I had absolutely no knowledge of her whatsoever, and the last thing I needed was for me being her to cause Aethtya to get injured or killed.

_And wouldn't that just fuck things up more.._

"Just.. don't get killed all right?"

"I can handle myself kid. I'm guessing T'laria knows?"

"Knows?" I blinked for a moment, dragging my head back to the proper conversation. "Oh. Yeah, she knows as much as I told you. She might know more about the Matriarch.. I know she owed her, but she's never told me for what. Neither one of us really wanted to dwell on her."

"Too bad." She gave me a glance. "I'm tracking her down when we get back. You run along and do whatever you're going to do. Better if you focus on living through the next few weeks. I'll forward you what Sayran sends me."

"Thanks.. take it easy on scales, would you?" My eyes flicked to hers before quickly shifting back to the rolling skyline. "I got the feeling it was something rather severe."

"Not much about her past isn't kid, but that's for her to tell you."

I had to fight back a wince. I didn't like being reminded that there was a  _lot_ about the first friend I'd made on this planet that I really didn't know about. Where she was from, how she knew Xerol, how she knew Aethyta, what she had owed the Matriarch for...

_Where she learned to fight._

We fell silent for a while, Aethtya probably working out how to start her new search, me trying to put the entire thing out of my head. I had enough problems with Chacksin and the Blue Suns without bringing the Asari who'd dragged me here back into my life.

_Or worrying about my 'long-term prognosis.'_

The way the doctor had said that hadn't exactly been reassuring. I'd been under the impression that Floating Mind was basically benign so long as an Asari didn't try and meld with me. But now, suddenly, I wasn't nearly so sure. And given that I'd blacked out for five minutes from a simulated touch, nothing near even a shallow bond.. there was definitely research in my future.

_Wait.. there's an Asari Matriarch right here. "_ What do you know about my.. condition?"

"Hn? I'm guessing you're looking for more details beyond the obvious."

I waved a hand. "Yeah. I have those down, what I didn't know was that I'd need a long-term prognosis to worry about."

"I've only ever seen it in Asari and Krogan." A muscled shoulder rose and fell as her head tipped. "And never to the extent that happened to you apparently. Don't know what happened to the Krogan, but an Asari should recover from it in a matter of months, few years at the outside."

"Sounds like I have research to do then." My right hand rubbed at my face as Khar'shan Minor slowly came into view far below us. "I'd rather not survive this and then die to some side-effect."

"I can understand that kid."

She took manual control as the car dipped into a slow dive, heading towards the large patch of green in the center of the small city. It was getting late, so there wasn't much traffic around the mansion as we descended. The few mechanics wrapping up some late work gave us short waves of greeting before resuming their tasks.

"Now to figure out what to tell Nyn." I muttered, swinging the door open.

"Well." The Matriarch grinned slightly as she exited the vehicle, "You're a shitty actor. Best go with what happened."

My eyes rolled. "Because telling her that I blacked out is going to go over really well."

"At least she won't have to worry about you running off with a nightclub dancer." she pointed out, waving a hand in my direction as she headed towards the doorway closer to Trena's rooms. "Luck kid."

"Thanks.."

I took my time on the familiar route from the garage to Nyn's chambers, almost as afraid of her reaction as I'd been when I was on my way to the hospital with Aethyta. Regrettably there really wasn't much to distract me during the trip. The servants were all probably either in the kitchens or main dining hall, getting things ready for Xerol's formal evening meal. Combine the time with the heavy losses the security teams had taken, and I actually didn't run into a single person during my walk. And so, yet again, the trip didn't seem to take nearly as long as it normally would have, and I found myself licking my lips as I carefully pushed the doors open.

"Hey Nyn, I"m..." My voice trailed off as I found myself gaping at the sight in front of me.

She'd moved the couch and end tables out of the way entirely, leaving plenty of room for a small table filled with steaming food. All of it was food that she knew that I enjoyed, from human pasta to Asari fish fries and Batarian breads. She'd even had someone mix an Illium Moonlight into a frozen mug.

All of that, of course, was totally secondary to her.

My Tarath'shan was standing patiently next to the table, wearing a light brown dress that was cut along one side to show off her muscled calf as she shifted that leg out a bit. It was sleeveless, and dipped enough to show the cartilaginous ridges protecting her sternum and stretching between her breasts. If  _that_ wasn't enough to get my attention, the dangling crystal earrings reflected the light across her teal skin, letting my eyes naturally follow them across her bared shoulders.

"If you would close the door, Cieran, I would appreciate it." her voice was lower than normal, almost husky as her dark eyes glistened merrily.

I did so, finally managing to snap my mouth shut from where I'd been practically letting my tongue hang out.

"I.. see that you had confidence in me.." Stupid as it was, it was all I had the mind to say. "I mean, wow.. you look..."

"Your initial expression, I believe, illustrated your approval well enough." her lips pulled into a small grin. "Perhaps you should sit down?"

That seemed like a very good idea, and I quickly crossed the small distance, fumbling only slightly with my chair before seating myself as she turned away, primly taking her own seat.

I had to close my eyes for nearly a minute, trying to throttle the arousal and lust that was threatening to overwhelm me. "Can I ask what this is about?"

"You may ask." My eyes didn't need to be open to know that she was grinning at my near loss of control at just her  _appearance "_ I had thought you might enjoy a.. comfortable night after having to deal with just tedious suspicions."

I risked flicking my eyelids back up, unable to help a smile. "So you did all of this in less than two hours."

"Perhaps I had planned for this to occur even before the Matriarch interfered with our affairs." she calmly took a sip from her wine, her lower eyes flicking down to her food while her upper set remained on mine. "Come now, surely you must be hungry."

I most certainly was, though not entirely for food.

Shaking off that kind of thinking, I carefully began to serve myself, trying to not notice how she would occasionally shift to give me the best view of the lights dancing across her chest and shoulders. I considered it a point of pride that I only missed my mouth with my food once or twice when my eyes started to wander.

She contented herself with teasing me for the first few minutes, making little comments whenever it became obvious that I was paying her more attention than my food. It wasn't until I'd managed to calm myself enough to focus on eating that she allowed the conversation to take a more serious turn.

"How was the test?"

I had to take a quick sip from my Moonlight to cover up any twitch I might have had. "Well.." My drink swirled a bit in the mug. "I do have Floating Mind. The doctor is going to get back to us on any long term affects."

All of her eyes narrowed, the flirtatious tone vanishing. "What happened?"

"Seriously," I lowered my drink and stared at her, a bit incredulous. "How did you already pick up that something happened?"

"If I told you, you would attempt to cease revealing your emotions, and that would complicate my life." Her right hand drummed its fingers on the table. "And, if you would?"

I sighed. "It's apparently.. unusually severe. They cut the test off almost immediately because of the reaction. I might have... blacked out for a minute or two."

Her fingers froze mid motion, and I mentally braced myself for the explosion.

"Cieran." It was hard not to wince at her growl. "You are telling me that you lost  _consciousness_ , and not only waited until  _now_  to tell me, but you actually came back here instead of remaining at the hospital?"

"I'm fine now Nyn," My hands rose as if I was trying to hold her off, "I promise. All I really had was a mild headache, and even that's faded already. It wasn't even as bad as when I first woke up after.. the first time."

She hardly looked convinced. "And what exactly was Aethyta thinking when she allowed you to leave?"

I might have winced slightly.

"You talked her into it."

"Well.. yeah, pretty much. You look amazing tonight, you know that right?"

"Yes." her lower eyes narrowed in exasperation while her upper set seemed to roll. "Cieran.. you are normally so cautious, why risk something like this?"

My mouth opened, then closed, and did that again before I settled back and tried to think about it. At the time, I just had wanted to get the hell out of there before more bad news elected to show up. But that being said, it probably was a pretty stupid thing to do for me to have not at least stayed an extra hour or two, especially considering how severe things seemed to be.

"I.. guess I wasn't thinking." I dropped my fork onto my plate, feeling a bit like an idiot.

"Well.." she slowly rose from her seat, almost gliding as she moved around the table towards me. "I suppose some allowances must be made. You will, however, be speaking with Doctor V'Rae first thing in the morning."

It was a bit hard to respond when she casually stretched out one of her legs, revealing her shapely thigh as she moved around the corner to stand beside me. "I.. of course."

"Good." She leaned forwards slightly, and I couldn't stop my eyes from briefly flicking to her chest before I tried to unfocus them to take in her entire face. One of her arms rose, a hand tracing across my cheek. "Now.. finish your meal."

"Ah.." My mouth snapped shut with a loud  _click._  "..You..."

There was a little smirk on her face as she pointedly leaned back, giving me an excellent view of her very shapely ass as her hips rolled, carrying her back to her own seat. I could only gape at her for a long moment before I almost growled, trying not to irritably stab my fork into my fish fry.

"You seem.. tense." that same damn smirk remained very much in place as she slid back into her chair, casually putting a bit more pasta onto her plate. "I doubt that it is merely from your evaluation."

I took an irritated drink from my mug. "It couldn't be because my Tarath'shan is enjoying teasing me with her body."

"That does rather seem like something she would do." she agreed, "Although she might have enjoyed it more if her Harath'krem had thought to call ahead and warn her that his medical condition was worse than he originally knew."

My lips might have twitched slightly, and I sighed before standing and formally putting my hands behind my back. "Tarath'shan Nynsi Shaaryak, I would like to formally apologize for not alerting you of what happened before my arrival. I would also like to request your forgiveness for not staying at the hospital for supervision as I should have."

Nyn leaned back in her chair slightly, both sets of eyes tracking up and down me for a long moment as she hands folded primly into her lap. Her own expression remained completely composed, excepting for the slightest hint of a smirk. "I suppose that I can forgive your behavior, in light of your past accomplishments."

I bowed slightly, "Thank you Tarath'shan."

The rest of dinner passed quickly. She largely left me off the hook, but there was still an undercurrent of concern to her coquettish commentary. Still, she seemed to be very much enjoying herself, and I did my best to encourage her. In part to help her not think about yet another problem that we seemed to have, but mostly because I definitely wouldn't mind seeing her dress up like this again.

Naturally, I finished eating long before she did, watching as she casually enjoyed the rest of her food.

"You seem impatient, as well as tense, now, Cieran."

My eyes narrowed a bit at her coy tone, and I slowly stood up, politely tucking my chair back under the table. "I wonder why that could be."

"Do you?" her upper eyes tracked me as I started casually walking, circling the table. Her head tilted so that she could follow me as I moved behind her, my hands resting on the warm skin of her shoulders as I started gently massaging her corded muscles.

"Not really." I admitted, leaning down to press my lips to the skin behind her ear. "Though I have to wonder if you're quite finished eating."

She made a pleased little sound as my fingers worked. "And if I am not?"

"Then I will wait for you to finish." I lowered my head bit, trailing kisses down the side of her neck before gently nipping at her skin.

"That.." her hands both settled onto the table, and her tone lowered further. "Is hardly waiting.."

I chuckled quietly, "It isn't as though I could get you out of that dress without ruining it."

"Clasps.." she seemed to quiver slightly as I shifted a hand to run down her spine, pausing only slightly to touch the skin between the plates protecting it. "Let me... stand.."

She was up the moment I helped to pull her chair back, irritably shoving it to fall on its side before grabbing my plain shirt and pulling me closer. Our mouths met roughly, her earthy taste filling me as our tongues deepened the kiss. Her strong form seemed to melt against me as my hands started to fumble with the clasps on the back of her dress.

Hers started to push on me, trying to direct me towards the bedroom. It was interesting to move that way, and I had half the clasps undone before my back hit the closed door.

The kiss was broken when she pulled back, almost hissing in irritation. "Cieran.. the door.."

"Nyn." I stopped her from pulling away, grabbing her by her waist and firmly keeping her warm body pressed against me. "Too much time. And shut up."

There was a little growl before she lunged back in, and the duel for dominance was on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was interesting.. very much a continuation of the last, and the start of some details about whatever it was that the Matriarch or her subordinate did to Cieran. How much that will affect him long term remains to be seen, but he won't have very long to worry about that, as we'll see in the next chapter.
> 
> I have to say, writing Aethyta is rather difficult, mostly because she doesn't have much characterization in game.. I'm trying to go with the old-spy / wearied-mentor route, but don't be surprised if her screen time decreases a bit from here on out.
> 
> Expect the next Chapter tomorrow, work is a bit slow right now, but given that I'll be moving pretty soon, there might be a bit of a break in the story. I'm hoping that I'll find the time to at least get another chapter or two out to keep the creative juices going, but can't make any guarantees.


	27. The Rush

I settled back into Nynsi's couch, trying not to wince as various bruises protested the movement. It was almost sunrise, and Nyn was still very much asleep in her luxurious bed. I had thought that after our.. activities last night that I'd have been far too tired for things like nightmares, but apparently that wasn't how that worked.

Knowing from experience that I wasn't going to get any more sleep after reliving, in slow motion dream-exaggerated detail, my rampage through the True Sons, I'd carefully slipped out of the bedroom. I'd then spent the better part of an hour cleaning up after.. us, given that we'd been far too tired to even contemplate doing that once we'd finished.

Sighing, I flicked the wall screen on, shifting the channel to the early morning news before turning the already low lights off entirely.

".. _the Illium Security campaign against the renegade mercenary unit known as the True Sons continued overnight."_ The anchor had dark blue skin and what Trena had claimed to be a rather thick Thessian accent, the windows of the studio behind her showing the brightening skyline of Nos Astra. " _While much of the details remain classified, we were able to obtain an exclusive interview with Captain Shera Vasir, sister to celebrated Spectre Tela Vasir, earlier this morning."_

I felt an eyebrow rise as the image shifted to the interior of a hanger, an armored up Captain Vasir cooly regarding whoever was holding the camera as an omni-tool was held in her direction.

The reporter sounded breathlessly excited to have actually landed the interview. " _Captain Vasir, thank you for agreeing to this. Now, initial reports indicate that you were pivotal to discovering the slaving ring setup by the anti-Asari group, would you care to comment on that?"_

_"While I would enjoy taking the credit, I would be remiss not to mention the actions of the Batarian enclave in the Khar'shan Minor district."_ Vasir tipped her head slightly, " _If it weren't for the True Sons irrational desire to attack them, I may never have even become involved in the investigations."_

_"There have been rumors to that regard,"_ I was surprised her arm managed to stay still with her apparent enthusiasm, " _Including reports that the apparent leader, one Xerol Shaaryak, is pressing for trading concessions to be made in light of his people's sacrifice. But how much do we actually owe him?"_

_"The Board of Directors owe him rather significantly."_ The Captain cut out, her voice sharp. " _As does Illium Security. Without his and his people's involvement this could have continued for years and lead to untold chaos."_

_"Surely you're exaggerating!"_

My eyes rolled as I belatedly realized that she was overacting for the audience.

Vasir briefly looked like she wanted to hit the reporter with a biotic attack, but her face quickly smoothed back into a mask of polite neutrality. " _More than thirty Batarians were killed rescueing slaves and protecting their people while our own fucking species looked aside, took bribes, or outright fucking helped. And rest assured that my sister, in addition to my own people, are currently taking a very long look at many institutions on Illium. She and her entourage made their first arrests an hour ago and she assures me that more are soon to follow."_

Well.. well, well. I wondered if Aethtya was awake and watching this. I didn't doubt that at least one of her people would be. At least we finally had an answer as to where Tela Vasir was, and apparently there was more to her than I thought.

The reporter's bubbly excitement faded into an almost stunned silence. " _There's.. your.. there's a Spectre on world?"_

The Captain gave her a smile that would have looked more appropriate on a shark. " _She's been on world for nearly two weeks now, and the full list of her arrests will be released at a press conference by the Executor later today."_

_"I.. well, I'm sure that many citizens will rest easier know that a Spectre helping with this affair."_ The reporter obviously wasn't going to be one of them. " _Ah.. if you don't mind returning to the topic of the Batarians.."_

_"The Board of Directors will have the final say on any possible lessening in the embargo of the Hegemony."_

_"Of course."_ She kept floundering for a few moments before seeming to gather herself. " _There are also rumors that Republic Intelligence was highly active during your investigation, and that several freelance agents were brought in and even led several raids on gang and mercenary locations. Can you comment on that?"_

" _Not at length."_ Vasir glanced aside at something before continuing. " _I can confirm the involvement of Republic officials in the investigation, but their identities are classified for their own safety."_

_"I'm sure that everyone is looking forwards to learning more about them when they are safe and sound."_ Uh-huh. That was us, the spitting image of Asari heroes. " _Do you have any comments on the Citadel Council's threat to open an investigation as to the so-called 'true state' of Illium?"_

_"That is a question for my sister to answer."_ One of her hands rose as a junior officer darted into the shot, covering her mouth with one of her own hands as she murmured something to Vasir. The Captain gave a slight nod, dismissed the maiden, and turned back to the reporter. " _I'm afraid I only have time for one more question."_

_"Do you believe that your sister will be at the press conference you mentioned?"_

There was a snort. " _When was the last time a Spectre not named Saren Arterius attended a media event?"_

_"I.. see. Thank you for your time Captain, and my the Goddess watch over your operation today. Now back to the studio with Shasi."_

The Thessian anchor thanked the reporter, then quickly shuffled the show off to commercials. Someone was probably about to get shrieked at for not knowing that there was a Spectre in system, or a whole bunch of someones. Come to think of it, there was probably already plenty of people getting the hell off planet for a while, and I almost wanted to switch to a financial network just to see the stocks stutter.

_Wonder what the place will be like when Shepard shows up.._

Not expecting to see anything else of note, I flicked over to a sports network where a pair of Asari nearly as muscled as Aethyta were arguing over how Illium's top four clawball teams would do on the Republic circuit this year.

The door opened quietly behind me, and I lowered the volume until I could hear the soft footsteps moving closer.

"You should have woken me up."

"I might have needed to start another war to manage that." I smiled as she glided into view, only loosely dressed in something similar to a black kimono. It didn't hide the bruises I'd left on her neck and shoulders any better than my shirt covered the fresh bite marks on mine.

She gave me a mild glare before yawning and almost collapsing onto the couch next to me. It was a good indicator of just how tired she still was, if she'd actually been awake, there was no way she'd have done anything so undignified. "How long have you been awake?"

My left arm shifted so that she could move closer, wrapping around her shoulder and pulling her closer until her head settled onto mine. "An hour or two."

"Which one?"

I shrugged minutely, "The True Sons at the treatment plant."

Her breath was warm as she sighed into my neck before gently kissing it. "It was a battle Cie. You can't keep blaming yourself."

"Yeah." I leaned my head until it was resting on the couch's back. "Apparently my subconscious won't accept that."

"You mean  _you_ won't."

"Same thing.. I could've.. done something besides what I did."

"And it might have gotten you killed." lips pressed against my skin again. "Or delayed you for so long that we all died. You can't play that game Cieran, it doesn't help."

That wasn't exactly easy. Everyone else I'd killed.. I'd felt pretty justified in doing so. Even my first kill in Trena's warehouse, the Salarian version of an eighteen year old or not, he'd been about to put a few rounds into me or Trena. If I hadn't pulled the trigger first, one or the both of us would've ended up dead. But the True Sons in at the plant.. I'd  _massacred_ them in a manner I'd thought reserved for video games.

There was a low growl before teeth pricked at my skin. "Stop it."

"How do you always know.." I glanced down to look into her upper eyes, the dark orbs glaring at me. ".. It's not exactly easy you know."

There was another sigh. "I know. But if you keep torturing yourself like this.. it won't do anyone any good." It was more or less the same advice she'd been giving me since it happened. And I really was trying to put it behind me, not to any success so far.

Her voice lowered slightly as a hand started to absently drift across my stomach. "Perhaps positive reinforcement might help you."

I blinked before my cheeks burned slightly. "Um.. not that I'm saying no.."

"Then don't." she leaned up and over to brush her lips on mine, and her hand slid further down, grabbing my shirt and starting to peel it upwards. "Or did I simply wear you out last night?"

"You almost managed that.." In truth, this was probably going to leave us both barely able to walk for the day if it was even half as.. energetic as last night, but I let my right hand drift down her side to start pulling at the cloth covering her, "But not quite."

She batted my hand away playfully before twisting to slide into my lap. I quickly raised my arms, letting her tug my light shirt up and over my head. It was hardly out of my sight before her tongue was demanding entry to my mouth, and hands were running through my hair.

Working by touch, my own slid into her robes, tracing along her flexing abs before darting around behind her. Wasting no time, my fingers quickly found the tender spots between her protective ridges, making her moan into our kiss as her hips started to roll of their own accord.

Her hands left my head and started to pull at her own robes, warm skin starting to touch mine.. and then someone fucking knocked on the god damned door.

I groaned and she growled as the kiss was broken. My head lowered as I let out a long exhale, burying my face in her warm neck as she snarled in the door's direction. "In the name of the Pillars this had better be important!"

There was a long pause before Trena's laughter echoed across the speaker. " _I know_ that  _tone of voice. Sorry to spoil your fun ape, little Shaaryak, but we've got a bit of a crisis."_

"And it can't wait?"

Her gruff voice turned serious. " _No. And you'd better get geared up. I meant crisis when I said it."_

Nails bit slightly into my shoulders, making me wince slightly before sinking my teeth into her shoulder in payback, which only made her hips roll again. "If this is not a crisis T'laria you'll find yourself back in V'Rae's care!"

" _Just get your ass dressed!"_

She got off of me reluctantly, giving me a shadowed glimpse of her body before fastening her robe in quick, annoyed motions. Her own eyes slid down a bit when I stood, but she gave a soft sigh before firmly shaking herself and heading back to the bedroom without a word. I followed her, and we quickly went through the motions of getting armed and armored. As usual it took me less time to get my lightweight stuff on and in place, aided a bit because I didn't have to put the under-armor clothing on first, which left me helping her get her arm plates on as she fasted her chest piece to the back plate.

The familiar act had worked well to calm us both down, at least once we'd gotten enough clothes on, and she'd user her omni-tool to let Trena in once I'd finished.

"Is it Chacksin?"

Trena, looking almost achingly like her old self in light armor and with a her hand cannon in place, limped into the bedroom on her cane. "No idea, but it's sure as Athame's ass something. We're meeting in the garage with everyone else."

I grunted, tugging hard on the forearm plate to make sure it was locked. "Scales, the details if you would. It's barely fucking dawn."

"You watch the news?"

"For once, yes." My arms paused as I thought that over quickly. "Someone didn't like hearing that a Spectre was on planet?"

"Fucking right someone didn't. We lost contact with both of Yrrich's people at the District's shuttle-pad, and the I-Sec girls aren't answering their damn coms either."

Nynsi growled, holding out her other arm for me while she spun up her omni-tool with the other. "Vasir had a full squad there to help us. And none of them managed to get a call out. Chacksin."

"You know any other assholes out to get us?" I did, but this didn't seem like the Matriarch's style. "Xerol's already sent out an emergency call to the usual crowd. Might be fucking nothing, goddess damned Batarian scare tactic, but can't take the risk."

"Great." I muttered, a firm tug confirming that her last piece was in place before I double checked that my old SMG was locked and secured on my back. "What about the Spectre?"

The three of us started moving, Trena moving at a fairly respectable clip as the two of us matched her pace. "No fucking word. As usual. Goddess damned tit."

"Can't bloody argue with that." My head shook as I muttered. "Be nice of her to at least let us know her fucking blue ass is helping us."

Nynsi sighed slightly, "Two minutes around her and your language deteriorates.."

I shrugged in a mildly apologetic fashion, and a brief silence fell over us as we slipped out of Nyn's chambers and quickly started for our destination.

It barely lasted a minute, about as long as Trena could contain herself, "So. Agreed, crisis? More important than sex?"

Nynsi growled something under her breath while I rolled my eyes.

"Nice marks by the way. Both of you. That some kind of possessive thing?"

I punched her shoulder, which only made my hand throb a bit while she snickered. My Tarath'shan, thankfully, stayed above us, very pointedly so. Which probably was the only thing keeping her and Trena from sniping with one another as the latter tried to pry the details of our love lives out of me.

I let her have her fun, she was sweating and trying to hide the fact that she was shaking slightly by the time we made it to the cavernous room.

Xerol, and maybe twenty Batarians plus a single Turian were a far cry from the small army that he could have assembled just two weeks ago. More than a few were wincing slightly as they stretched, or checking to make sure that whatever bandages they had on weren't interfering with their armor.

_"_ Good, everyone is here." I had to fight a double take at his appearance. The formal suit and cane were both entirely absent, replaced with heavy, dark armor not unlike Nyn's. If the boss himself was armoring up..  _Oh fuck. This cannot possibly be good.._

"Trena, did you bring them up to speed? Good. The mansion is on lock-down, but we have no information on the enemy."

I rose a hand, "When did we lose contact with the shuttle-pad?"

"The routine call-in twenty minutes ago."

The shuttle-pad was barely that far away from the mansion's grounds at a brisk walk, much less by air or simply by running. "They should have hit us already."

"I'm aware, Harath'krem." His fingers briefly curled at the interruption before he stilled himself. "Our security systems haven't reported any trespassers on the ground, but I'm taking no chances. We will be patrolling the mansion in groups until Captain Vasir is able to reinforce us. Trena, you and I will be directing our efforts from the main conference room. Marn, dedicate four of your people to defending this room and the air cars, the rest of your people will have the east wing. Yrrich, yours will have the west. I want reports by every team to the lead and back to me every two minutes."

All four of his eyes flicked back to me, "Kean. Is your armor ready?"

"Yes." I guessed at my destination. "Entry hall?"

"Take my niece and one other to cover your flanks."

I rocked back a bit at the notion that he was giving  _me_  the opportunity to pick instead of having Nynsi do it. "Yrrich, can you spare Chen?"

The sniper chuckled raspily, "He's useless indoors anyway."

"Good." Xerol cut in before we could insert any levity into the situation. "I'm afraid I'll have to cut the usual prayer short. May the Pillars support us all."

The Batarians all made small rotating motions with their right hands, a subtle little thing that Nyn said was to invoke the idea of grasping a rope hanging from their sacred icons, before splitting apart.

Flicking my omni-tool to life, I jogged over to my armor and sent the open command as soon as I had the right menu. Pausing only to remove my SMG from my back to fasten it onto the suit's right hip, I hefted myself up it until I could swing my legs into the opening.

I'd gotten faster at getting in, and the engine was rumbling to life as I hit the chin button to close the torso back up. My extended arms picked up the Visage from where it was resting on a shelf beside the armor, Nyn and Chen already having their own guns drawn and held low.

"Ready, Harath'krem?"

"Yeah." I glanced over my systems. Some of them were still flickering a warning yellow, I'd barely gotten it running, much less had time for a few test runs. But everything important, the engine, the mass effect core, and the weapons were all green and ready to go.

I squeezed out the doorway behind them, lumbering into the hall as I oriented myself and turned towards our designated area.

"You two think this is serious?" Chen, almost twirling his heavy carbine in his hands, sounded less than sure. "Not just a communications glitch?"

"Scales was worried." I blew out a breath, "And so was Xerol."

"Weird seeing him all armored up like that." the sharpshooter admitted, snapping his gun firmly back into his grip. "Still. Place feels like an echoed cave with so many on the Pillars."

It took me a moment to translate that in my head, and then work out what he was actually worried about. "Yeah. Well, even if it is something, just have to sit tight until I-Sec gets their asses here."

Nyn's helmet glanced in my direction.

"Sorry Tarath'shan."

Our companion snorted, "What, you trying to train him?"

Her helmet swung his way.

"... sorry ma'am."

I snorted, thankfully not loudly enough for my mice to transmit it.

It didn't take us long, even at my less than stellar speed, to make it to the entrance hall. It looked the same as it ever did, nice rugs, few ugly pieces of art on the walls, solid square columns stretching up on either side of the hall.. it was almost medieval but that was apparently the latest style on Khar'shan. From what Nyn and Trena had told me, Xerol actually rebuilt and redecorated every few years to stay fashionable.

Which, to me, was just proof that he just had too much fucking money.

"Behind the pillars?" Nyn spoke quietly, regarding the armored shutters that had slid into place on our side of the wooden doors.

"Yeah." I blew out a breath, still struggling a bit to get into the right mindset for a fight. "I'll try and get their shields down, you two finish them. When I overheat I'll switch to overloads to keep the tactics the same."

"Don't need to tell me that." Chen chuckled, sliding behind the pillar on my immediate left. I could see him sinking to a crouch on my rear camera, settling in to watch the door. "I remember our little operation. Worked damn well."

Nyn started to move, then paused to regard the room. "Cieran, the other pillars. I don't have any grenades. Neither does he."

I blinked, then slapped a metal hand against the armored box that protected my head. "Fuck. Right, idiot. Should have grabbed some. Tech mines on my left arm, I'll move up to cover you."

She didn't need any more instruction, quickly using her own omni-tool to open my tech mine's magazine. Leaving me around a dozen, we divided setting them up, quickly giving her a small pile of remote-ready incinerates and overloads. I still had no idea how to improve them, it was on my to-do list, but hopefully they'd be sufficient for this.

Shifting right, out of Chen's lane of fire, I snapped my gun up to cover the door as Nyn got to work setting up our traps on the other pillars.

" _This is control. Entrance team?"_ Trena's voice echoed around me.

"Still alive. No attempts at.. well, entry."

" _Still no contact with the shuttle-pad.."_ her voice trailed off for a moment, then became even lower with worry. " _Scratch that. Just lost all fucking external comms, somethings jamming us."_

Our sharpshooter and I both tightened up a bit on our guns, and Nyn began noticeably moving faster. Whatever difficulty I'd been having getting my head in the game vanished instantly, and I felt the adrenaline starting to flow.

"Copy that scales. We're ready in here."

" _Don't die ape. You still haven't told me if you bend her over or not."_ Chen made a strangled sound. " _See you at the end of whatever this fucking is."_

Nyn gave me a severe glare I could feel even through the blank visor of her helmet, but set the last tech mine before falling back to a post opposite of Chen. Which meant, assuming we all lived through this, I was probably going to have to do something to stop her from beating the crap out of Trena. Well.. maybe. She deserved at least a mild beating for saying that on the freaking radio.

The waiting that followed was awful, even by the usual waiting-for-the-fight-to-fucking-start standards. I had it the easiest, given that I could just lock my arms in place so that it didn't actually take any effort to hold my gun up. Chen and Nyn alternated keeping theirs up.

Reports came and went, Trena confirming that there hadn't been any evidence of anyone trying to break in. Or even tripping the grounds security sensors. But we still had no external communications, or even extranet access.

After ten minutes or so, Trena silently shifted to a private line with me.

" _I don't like this ape. This is definitely Batarian tactics, but this is too fucking quiet for the Suns."_

_"_ Yeah." I had to resist the urge to figit. "And how the hell are they jamming us this well? And why? We already got the call out, I-Sec should be here in what, six more minutes?"

" _Give or take. Fuck this is giving me the creeps. Xerol thinks this might just be to key us up."_

_"_ And risk us figuring out a counter for their jamming next time?"

" _So he's being goddess damned hopeful. Be optimistic for once ape."_

"I'll try scales." I blew out a breath, "You think Aethyta got in touch with Vasir?"

She didn't reply.

"Scales?"

Static.

"Nyn.. I just lost contact with control." Her head whipped around, even as my eyes quickly snapped to my rear camera, which didn't show anything.. for now.

Her omni-tool flickered as she ran through channels. "This is the Entrance hall team. All pairs respond."

Silence was the only answer that we got back.

Chen slowly stood up, shifting his aim to the two hallways leading to the different wings of the Mansion. "I've got a bad feeling about this."

The classic line didn't even draw a grin to my face. "Yeah.. me too."

As if to remind us that things could be worse, the lights high above us flickered once, then went out, leaving us in perfect darkness.

We didn't even have the time to flick our gun lights on before gunfire began to echo.


	28. The Hunt

"What direction is that coming from?" Nyn snapped, a small light on her short-barreled pistol flicking to life as similar ones brightened on my rifle and Chen's carbine.

"Left.. no." Our sharpshooter cocked his head as another set of bursts echoed. "Both directions."

"Dammit." Her helmet swung around to stare at the door for a long moment, and my teeth ground as I also realized the problem.

On one hand, we could hardly ignore the fact that there was definitely fighting going on inside of the mansion already. But on the other, our job was supposed to be to guard the entrance hall. If we left to investigate and a horde of mercenaries blew in the front door and swarmed inside, everything that followed would be entirely on Nyn and I. And given that there was only three of us, with even our short-ranged radios being jammed, splitting up was hardly an option.

"We're moving." she snapped, jerking her weapon towards the east wing. "We need to get to the conference hall and make sure that my Uncle is safe."

"Got it. I'll take the rear, you can't see behind you."

"Chen, on me."

I was already backing up, flicking between my front view and the small screen showing my back arc. Besides our own lights, there really wasn't much to see, and I had to give our enemies credit. Killing the lights wouldn't normally have done much, the sun was already rising, but with the armor shutters lowered to keep intruders out there wasn't any light coming in through the normal windows. Assuming they were smart, their people probably all had night vision gear ready, which would leave us at an even worse disadvantage.

_And if they cut the power, we wouldn't even be able to open the damn things anyway._

My Batarian companions had taken the first few steps down the hall, and I was about to turn away from the entrance, when our decision was rendered invalid by something we had no reason to expect.

The main door. The locked main door. The locked, reinforced, sealed main door that should have needed at least a dozen charges to blast through... slid  _open_  with a small chime. Highlighted by the aura of sunlight around him, a humanoid form in heavyweight armor started into the mansion, his carbine up and at the ready.

We both opened fire at about the same moment, my incendiary rounds lighting up the hall as his conventional tracers filled the air with sparks as they hit my shields. Apparently unfazed by my presence, my opponent smoothly moved as he fired slow, controlled shots before sliding behind one of the columns. Hard on his heels were several more Blue Suns, all in heavy armor, professionally darting through my fire to reach cover.

"Nyn! First columns!" I winced slightly at the bright sunlight highlighting the doorway, and again as the enemy count hit five and kept going up.

She and Chen had sprinted back the moment the gunfire had started, my Tarath'shan using me as cover as she crossed the hall. At my shout, she flicked her omni-tool to life, fingers obstructing the light as they shifted to input the command.

Fire and arced lightning exploded in muffled  _booms_  as the first set of mines detonated, Batarian voices rising as they swore and jostled. One shifted too far into the hall, and promptly spun like a top when Chen blasted a round into his shoulder. I shifted my aim to finish him off, three rounds leaving smoking holes in his chest, before snapping my gun back up to keep up what fire I could.

"How many?" Nyn called out as she ducked around, firing a handful of rounds to send the latest entry scurrying.

"Seven!" I winced as two bursts knocked my shields back a good ten percent.

Chen slammed a round into the head of the latest arrival, sending him or her stumbling back before Nyn and I put them down with a combined brace of shots. "Figure that many more outside!"

Even if we'd all been in position, the odds that we'd have been able to keep that many mercs at bay would have been low. The heavy armor, their professional movements.. maybe if we'd have had grenades or at least a full squad with us we could have held out. But with five of them already inside, as soon as they started throwing grenades and carnage rounds, or had someone move up with a heavy weapon, I was toast. And without my massive, distracting form, Nyn and Chen wouldn't last long on their own against as many as there seemed to be.

"Nyn, we can't stay here!" Stone chips flew as I forced one of the insiders to duck back.

"I know!" she snapped back, quickly swapping out her pistols as her short ranged model overheated. "Falling back to the right! Call out when you need the mines!"

"Got it." Careful to keep my flat fleet stable, I started shifting back, flinching slightly when a merc whipped around a column to put a solid shotgun slug into my chest. My well-worked eezo core stopped my from rocking back more than a few inches, but other shots had started to ricochet off my armor proper as my barriers began to give out.

It took them about three seconds to realize that I was pulling away from them, and less than that to start trying to take advantage of it.

"Second set!"

Another set of flashes made the mercs moving up stumble backwards, Chen and I quickly put them down, thick red blood beginning to stain the expensive flooring.

There was as stuttering pause to the incoming fire, before several of our opponents leaned out and opened up at full auto. But we weren't their targets, stone and sparks flew as they liberally hosed down the columns. Nynsi, not seeing any reason to hold them any longer, set off the rest of the mines, adding even more noise to the din. It did send one of the kneeling forms scrambling as an incinerate managed to blast a heavy chunk of stone into his head. I tried to finish him off, but two of his compatriots yanked him behind one of the remaining columns as my shots peppered his legs.

_I fucking hate smart enemies!_

"Chen! Move your fat ass!"

The sniper put another round past me, a snarling yelp punctuating the gunfire as his target went down, clutching at a bleeding arm. "Bit busy two eyes!"

"Get fucking less busy!" I snapped back, planting myself at the back of the hall, waiting for him to make his run from left to right. Between the mines and the small doorway, we'd managed to keep them slightly disrupted, but someone over there was getting their shit together. Three of them leaned out, peppering me hard with assault rifle and carbine rounds and thoroughly fowling up my counter-fire.

What they were covering became clear as Chen made his move. I'd barely had the time to notice that he was running before two new figures, both obviously Salarian, entered the hall. Each was brightly illuminated by the omni-shields of their tech armor, but even more worrying to me was the shotgun the first was holding.. and the grenade launcher the second had.

_Oh no.._

My heat was barely in control, so I shifted my left hand free, triggering the tech launcher as quickly as I could force my fingers to move. The incinerate whipped through the air at the same moment as a carnage round and a propelled grenade came straight back at me.

The grenade hit first. My luck held, however briefly, because he'd apparently had it set to launch a fragmentation round instead of an armor cracking module. It jostled me pretty badly, but didn't do that much damage. The carnage round that slammed smack into my chest more than made up for that.

I stumbled backwards as my displays flickered, stabilizing as the work I'd done on my power cables and control wires paid off. I'd lost a few connections on my left side, the actuators would be a bit sluggish to move with my actual arm, but the armor had held.. for now.

Returning my left hand to my gun, I liberally hosed both of the amphibious aliens down with fire from my slightly colder weapon. Both were already scorched from the incinerate I'd hit them with, but fought to stand their ground. For shotgun boy that was a mistake, his weapon was already glowing hot from the carnage round he'd fired, and he only managed to get off one regular shot before green blood sprayed where one of my shots found his weak neck plates. His companion, muted swearing audible as he frantically adjusted his launcher, sent his next shot straight into my left leg before Nyn leaned back around the corner and put three precise shots into his head.

I have no idea how I stayed upright when that hit, because it thoroughly shattered the blocky shin plate and made alarms shriek as actuators failed. It was all I could do to limp backwards, dragging my leg awkwardly as I back around the corner.

"Chen, you're lead, conference room!" Nynsi snapped, ducking out to put a few more rounds around the corner to make our imminent pursuers think twice. "Cieran! Can you move!?"

"Not fast." I hadn't stopped moving as it was. It wouldn't take either of them long to get past me, and I needed to keep going to open up the range if nothing else.

Nynsi growled something under her breath, flinching as something sent sparks flying from the stone in front of her. Giving a final pair of shots without even bothering to look, she turned and jogged past me, swapping pistols yet again.

My rear camera stopped flickering to show Chen moving at a brisk walk, quickly leaving me behind, his light swinging smoothly from left to right and then back as he searched the dark hall.

"Cieran.." my Tarath'shan's voice was low as she settled into place behind me, easily walking backwards in time with my limping, lumbering movements. I managed to get a bit more speed by swinging my leg around, compensating for the locked ankle, but I had to be careful as hell to avoid tipping over.

"Just keep moving Nyn." I swallowed, trying to relieve my dry throat. My armor was better off than if I'd gotten hit in the knee or upper leg, which would have left me barely able to move, but I definitely wasn't in good spot right now. "Soon as we get a breather I'll bail."

I didn't need to see her face to know that she was giving me a disbelieving look, but she refrained from saying anything further.

Which worked out, because our twenty second breather was over.. A pair of grenades bounced off the floors and walls, making me wince as they flashed and peppered me with fragments. Another set of cables on my shattered left shin failed, sending more red onto my HUD, not that it actually hurt with the systems already locked up.

The explosions had barely resolved themselves before a merc leaned around the corner, sending a ricochet off my right shoulder before ducking back as I put a short burst into his exposed arms.

"Found Marn!" Chen's voice called back from behind us, but I didn't risk shifting my eyes to my rear camera.

The gruff woman shouted at us even as I put a few more suppressing shots as I limped backwards, "Report!"

"Full squad in heavy plate, and by the Pillars they're well trained!" Nyn fired a few shots under my right arm. "Cieran's slowed but moving! Yours!?"

"They're in the garage as well, and I think we've lost the entire west wing!" I winced. Doc V'Rae and her quarters had been in the west wing, and I didn't think she and her nurses had joined the evacuation. Never-mind that Yrrich and his people had been there.."I've moved everyone still mobile to block the halls between the hanger and the control room!"

I had time to contemplate the fact that we were now trapped between the squad in the entrance hall and whoever had gotten into the garage before the mercs stopped giving me time to think. The same carbine armed guy leaned back around, but this time he was joined by another merc with a hand cannon, both of them blasting away at me. Nyn and I both retaliated quickly, and I had no idea how she managed to stay accurate when walking fucking backwards and firing around my likewise moving form.

Focusing on the pair of guys, particularly as their barriers failed, I almost missed the new form actually dropping into a soccer style slide behind them.

The bizarre maneuver worked completely at taking me by surprise, but it worked against the merc's own aim as the grenade launcher he'd probably pilfered from the now dead Salarian sent a grenade whipping over my head.

Panicking, I shifted my aim as rapidly as I could, holding the trigger down as I tried to stop him from living long enough to correct his aim. Even with Chen and Nyn quickly joining in, ending his life when our combined shots blasted through his chest, we weren't quick enough to stop him from shifting the weapon and yanking on the trigger twice.

The first armor-cracker hit my left shoulder, and it made a Carnage round feel like a love-tap. Armor crunched and screamed as it tore free, and the entire left arm section actually flew off of my natural arm like a sleeve ripped off a shirt. Which, let me tell you, hurt like a bitch, and I'm pretty sure that my elbow was dislocated.

I was already going over, but the second shot guaranteed it. It impacted on my right side, near my waist, and sent me into a slow spin as I fell. For a long few moments, it felt like I had an eternity to survey my failing HUD as I went down. My right hip motors were gone entirely, probably torn to literal pieces. The reinforcements I'd done had actually worked against me, because when it had gone it had torn the cables through my entire leg free, causing a cascading failure through the systems. And my left arm.. was obviously gone, and again cables and artificial muscles that I'd strengthened tore throughout the suit's chest and back.

"Cieran!" A voice, I think it was Nyn's, shouted as I hit the ground, but I was having a hard time keeping track of much of anything right then. What with the noise, the shaking, and the pain.

"Cover him! You, get him out of that thing!"

Gunfire was roaring, sounding like it was whipping right over my head, and my chest was aching painfully. Something, or someone, was scrambling nearby, making my armor shift slightly as they pulled on various things.

 _Oh... right, breathing._ Sweet air filled my lungs as I gasped, my eyes finally starting to focus.

I'd landed on my right side, my intact back armor covering whoever was trying to help me get out. Beyond that, I couldn't tell, not with my HUD failing and no real lights to help me see through the thin visor. Wincing as my entire left arm informed me of just how badly it hurt, my chin found the exit button and pressed it down.

"He's alive!" It was apparently Chen trying to help me out, his helmet becoming visible as my armor cracked open.

I wasn't much help when it came to getting out, I was just too out of it, but he still manged to pry me loose faster than I probably could have managed on my own. Of course, whatever thanks I'd have offered for that help became violent oaths when he dropped me on my left side.

"Mother fucking son of Athame's bloody bitch!" My right arm seized my left as I rocked in pain.

"Get his gun! Right hip!"

Said weapon landed on the ground beside me before Chen roughly pushed me aside, and I felt my back hit a wall.

_Wall.. must have scraped my way down it as I fell. Good bit of cover at least..._

I don't know how long it took me to get my wits together, but when I came back to reality the firefight was still ongoing.

Chen was kneeling beside me, bleeding heavily from a shoulder wound as he rested his carbine on my fallen exoskeleton, firing precise shots down the hall. The fallen form of one of Marn's people was on his other side, blood coating a wicked looking crack in his helmet. Across the hall were Nyn and Marn, using one of the small bench alcoves as cover as they alternated turns blasting away at our enemies.

Further down the hall, I could see what I thought was Xerol and Trena, along with another pair of Marn's Batarians, sending shots around a corner. The gun-flashes were almost pretty, strobe-like even, though the sparks flying when their barriers or the stone near them was hit reminded me that people were trying to kill them.

"Sit...fuck." I fumbled my gun into my right hand, doing my damnedest not to move my left. "Sitrep please!"

"We're fucked!" Our sharpshooter chuckled, "But at least you can help us take a few more of them with us."

"Great." Suppressing the pain was rough, but I managed to shift until my back was pressed up against my armor, finding it wedged firmly against the wall. "What do you need?"

His gun barked again, "Still got your little launcher?"

I glanced down at my belt. "Yeah. Overloads or incinerates?"

"Overloads, right side, ten meters!"

Dropping my gun again, I flicked my omni-tool up and prepped the first. Blowing out a breath and gritting my teeth, I heaved myself up and launched the mine. The blue disc whipped down the hall in a flash, arced lightning revealing a pair of mercs laying prone as they tried to suppress Nyn and Marn.

I ducked back before anyone could get a bead on my helmet less skull, but Chen's chuckle made me think he got at least one of them.

"No helmet?"

"Was on my right hip. Lucky the gun was down on the thigh or I'd have fucking lost that too." Something heavy, a shotgun probably sent sparks flying over my head. "What next?"

"Prep an overload but hold, they're pulling back again." he sank back a bit, "You got this one little boss?"

Nynsi nodded, keeping her gun aimed as she exposed as little of herself as she could.

Once she had my companion sank back down entirely, patting his gun as he let it drop into his lap. "You managed to miss two surges so far. Not sure that we've killed more than one or two, but they don't seem to want to rush us."

"Won't last." I grunted, finishing prepping the mine. "They probably think there's more of us in here than there are."

"Sounds about right." There was a seething sigh from within his helmet. "Damnit. My pipe is in the western wing."

My head shook. The idea that we were about to die.. made the gallows humor come easily, go fucking figure. "So are Nyn's chambers. With all of my shit. Can't even die protecting our stuff.. what the fuck is that?"

"I know, right?" He laughed as Nyn gave an exasperated sigh. "Fucking Illium. Can't even give us that."

"Fucking Illium." A groan half ruined the familiar curse as my arm throbbed some more. I had no idea what my armor getting ripped free like that had done but I doubted it was good. "You all right Tarath'shan?"

"I'm still alive Harath'krem. And we're going to survive this. Both of you should remember that."

"Yes Tarath'shan"

"Yes ma'am."

Chen and I glanced at each other, my lips twisting into a grin. Anything else we were going to say, it probably would be inane regardless, was cut off when Nyn stiffened. "They're moving again."

_Well.. here we go then._

Hefting myself up, I rested my right hand on my fallen armor, fingers curling as I prepped to launch my readied mine at the first merc to show himself.

Instead, we got someone calling out on a speaker, an unwelcome, furious voice telling us just who was leading this raid.

" _You are proving tenacious brother. I was assured that this would be far simpler, but I'm glad I didn't take him at his word."_ It echoed slightly, but I was pretty sure it was coming from where Xerol and Trena were huddled. " _I must compliment your hiring practices however. Your sniper put up the quite the fight before he died, and your doctor dealt with my inside agent most viciously."_

I wanted to curse.  _Another_ fucking inside agent explained how they'd gotten in so easily, and shut down everything right under our goddess-damned noses. The fact that V'Rae had apparently taken him or her out before she'd died wasn't any consolation.

"Brother." Xerol sounded much more like Chacksin, almost naked fury lacing each word. "You never were one to pass up a chance to taunt your opponent, even before you got us exiled."

There was a bark of laughter. " _Still blaming me? Come now brother, let us not forget whose idea it was. I can still recall Father threatening to gauge your eyes out and present them to the Patriarchs Council.. perhaps I shall do on his behalf. It would be fitting repayment. You have no idea how expensive it is to redirect emergency transmissions by the way."_

All four of us stiffened, their helmets and my eyes shifting as we eyed each other. If he was telling the truth, and he probably was that asshole, then we hadn't managed to get a distress call out at all. We'd probably just spoken to female Batarians or paid off Asari, not Vasir and Aethyta's underlings like Xerol had probably thought.

If that rattled our host at all, he didn't let it show in his voice. "Come on then, I'm sure that he and mother are lonely without to be crushed by the pillars alongside them!"

" _So faithful, as always. Still. Your people lay dead, your fortress is laid bare, and soon I will kill you and take what is rightfully mine, I suppose your faith in that antiquated religion is all you really have."_ There was a quieter chuckle. " _And what of the others. Is my wayward daughter and her defiler present?"_

Nyn, practically trembling with anger, shook her head once. Despite very much wanting to curse out the asshole about to kill us, I clenched my jaw and likewise said nothing.

" _Playing silent I see.. I hear that his pathetic armor had fallen, I do hope for my people's sake that he still lives. I would hate to be deprived of the chance to treat with him myself.. and at length."_ I tasted blood as I bit my tongue. " _Well then, to the matter at hand. I do not suppose that you would be willing to lay down your arms? I would, of course, allow your few surviving security personnel to join my organization should they do so."_

Marn and Chen didn't even move, and I doubted the other survivors behind me did either.

" _No? Such a pity. Well then, rememb-"_

" _By the Goddess it's a mess in here."_ A cocky female voice cut him off, timed almost perfectly with the  _click-thud-click-thud-click-thud_ of the heavy lights flaring back to life high above us. " _And here I thought you were a professional, Chacksin ul Shaaryak."_

There was a very long pause before Chacksin, any of his dark mirth buried once more in livid anger, spoke again. " _Who the hell are you, and how did you get here?"_

AN amused chuckle answered him. " _You did a very good job redirecting the calls, I'm not going to lie. I even copied a few of your engineer's hacks, they may come in useful later. But you, and they I suppose, forgot to check Mister Shaaryak's systems for additional algorithms that copied any transmissions to a third party."_

I couldn't stop the smile, and the hope, that started to rise as she spoke. " _Tela Vasir, Special Tactics and Recon. And I even have some friends with, one of whom is just_ dying  _to meet you. Well.. you will probably die, but I won't dock his pay for it."_

_"KILL THEM! NOW!"_

The sudden scream made me jump, which led to my left arm banging into something, which led to more grinding my teeth in agony.

I didn't need my companion's shout to know to fire off the mine, the electric blue disk tearing off to slam into the lead Blue Sun as he darted around the corner. Again not bothering to stick around to get my head blown off, I ducked frantically starting to prep another mine.

"No! Shoot!" Chen was firing as fast as his weapon could fire, as were Nyn and Marn.

Scrambling a bit, I managed to grab my SMG and rise up again, the adrenaline roaring as my eyes surveyed the seen. Two or three were already down, practically trampled by their own comrades, as nearly a dozen rushed us. Their own shots were wild, inaccurate, their fire discipline probably worn by the long fight and the sudden command to charge.

Not that it mattered, even I as tried to first short bursts one handed, there wasn't anything the four of us could do against that many. Still, my eyes caught a flickering light behind them, and I couldn't stop the smile that rose again.

Never let it be said that Spectre's don't know how to make an entrance.

I'd once watched Trena and Ghai spar, back in the short time when they'd both been healthy and able to find. It had been intimidating as hell watching them move, biotics curling around their bodies as they combined martial arts moves with simulated gun shots and dark energy. But Tela Vasir.. made them look like kids who'd been playing dress up.

The first merc died from her charge, the bow wave from her movement enough to crush him inside his armor like she'd squeezed an empty can. Three more were dead inside of a heartbeat, a shotgun roaring in time with each kill before arcing through the air as she negligently tossed it aside.

She wasn't even bothering to wear a fucking  _helmet_ , letting everyone see the satisfied smile on her face.

A biotic shockwave blew out a window, and took two more Blue Suns with it, their screams as they went flying make her smirk widen further. They were still fucking trying to turn around to react to the fact that she was even  _there,_ and she'd already killed half of them.

But just as quickly as she'd arrive, she was gone, slamming all four of us, and the five remaining Blue Suns, to the ground. I had the briefest glimpse of an elongated blur as she used another biotic charge to move past us, probably to join the fight at the other end of the hall.

Gunfire started to roar from the direction she'd originally come, and by the time I'd managed to push myself up with my one good arm, the rest of the Suns were dead. Walking calmly towards us was as motley a group as I'd ever seen, even compared to us. A pair of Asari commandos in what looked like hunting leathers, a Turian in heavier plate than I'd ever seen someone wearing, and at trio of humans all wearing mismatched armor casually started to inspect the fallen mercs.

"Well. Good to see some of you are alive." One of the Asari, her purple skin contrasting badly with the cyan face paint she wore, holstered her pistols. "They did a number on your friends on the other side of this place."

I was too happy to be alive and breathing right then to really let her words get to me. There was definitely something to be said for fully expecting to die, and then surviving. It felt like I wanted to laugh and cry together before finding a quiet place with Nyn to sleep for an age and a half.

"I'm not paying you all by the hour!" Vasir's voice was dry, "So if you'd get over here and help me, I'd appreciate not having to fire you all and find new help. Especially you Jarri, not sure this one's going to make it."

Wincing at how fast I whipped my head around, I focused on where the Spectre was watching one person leaning over another.

I started to let out a breath at seeing Trena still upright, her cane tossed aside, even if she was kneeling and frantically applying medigel to...

_Oh no..._

Nyn staggered slightly, then tore off her helmet and started running towards them, Marn hard on her heels. Chen had to help me up, but we were right behind them all the same.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So.. yeah. That happened. This Arc, in case you couldn't tell, is going not going to be the most cheerful of them by a long shot (Hence the title "The Lamentation"). Things are pretty fucked up right now.. and are going to stay that way for the rest of the run. I wasn't exactly happy about Vasir showing up to save the day like that, but I wanted her to have a better entrance than just showing up and saying, "hey, i'm a spectre."


	29. The Recovery

I let out a quiet hiss of pain when the I-Sec medic shoved the needle into my shoulder, but it honestly wasn't nearly as bad as getting my arm shoved back into place had been. Or my elbow for that matter.

"This will keep the pain and swelling down, and should prevent any long term damage."

"Thanks." Cold liquid flooded down my arm and across my chest, and it nearly made my sag in relief. Getting a dislocated arm fixed without painkillers was an experience I never wanted to go through again. "How long do I have to keep the sling on?"

The medic gave a little shrug, her purple skin practically shining in the light. "At least a week, preferably longer. But given what little I know about you and your friends here, I'll go ahead and tell you that anything less than four or five days and you'll risk damaging your ligaments, even with the injection I just gave you."

I winced slightly. Given what she knew was right, and she probably didn't even know all of it. "I'll keep that in mind."

She made a quiet sound before packing up her things and heading back outside, which regrettably left me rather alone in the hallway, with no real idea of what was even happening anymore.

Nyn, having grabbed Chen and Marn, had left me and Trena behind to chase after Chacksin with Vasir. I'd wanted to go with, my arm in pieces or not, but she'd told me in no uncertain terms that I would be more of a hindrance than a help and that I needed to stay. Given that she'd just seen the body of the man she treated as her actual father, I couldn't really blame her for snapping at me. Or for sprinting for her aircar and flying off after him.

Shuffling a bit, I kicked half of a fallen assault rifle aside before settling in on top of my armor. Or what was left of it. It had gotten shot to hell even before I'd bailed, and then being used for cover in addition to that had left it more memory than exoskeleton. Chen and I had actually been pretty lucky in that regard, a few more exchanges would have probably been enough for the back plates to fall off entirely.

Of course, we were pretty much the only one's who'd had any luck at all.

I hadn't really known Yrrich all that well. He'd been sick with some kind of persistent flu from before I'd even come to the enclave. From all accounts he'd been a pretty typical sniper though. Quiet, withdrawn, and a bit cold.. but damned effective at what he did. From what I-Sec had managed to piece together, he'd lasted longer than most of his team, setting up at the end of a hall and blowing mercs apart as they came until they simply overwhelmed him and his partner.

Doc V'Rae had been a bit odd, and you definitely never wanted to mess with her in her own domain. But she'd still gotten me immunizations and supplements without asking questions about why I didn't even have the basics done.

_And her and scales screaming at each other was always good for a laugh.._

Our traitor had turned out to be  **T** hareus, to neither I nor Trena's surprise. In hindsight, his and the other Turian's all being willing to join had been a bit too convenient. Still, we had no idea why a former slave, and he definitely had all the markings of one, would be willing to accept payment from the people who'd tortured him to betray people willing to help him. And given that V'Rae had literally melted his brains with warpfire, I doubted we'd ever really know.

_Maybe Aethyta or the Vasirs can find something.._

But.. there was the one loss that made the rest look pale in comparison. Which was a shitty thing to think, given that their lives had been ended as brutally as his, but that I couldn't' stop myself from thinking all the same.

_Dammit Xerol.. you couldn't just stay safe in the conference room, you had to help defend your house._

Logically, I knew there was no sense in blaming him. It was his mansion, his fortress, his home. He hadn't liked staying out of it the last time it had been attacked, and that had been when we had a small army ready to defend it. We'd been down to the dregs, to the point where even Trena, limping around as she was, had been out shooting.

But with him gone... I honestly had no fucking idea what we were going to do now. Sure, I'd really only known the guy for a few months, but he'd been... well, our leader. More than just the boss, he'd been the one calling the shots, sticking his neck out in personal meetings with Sederis, organizing everything we'd needed to take the fight to the gang and the mercenaries. He'd let me and Trena live in his mansion when our apartments weren't safe anymore, had given me all the parts I'd needed to get my exoskeleton up and running..

_Let you stay with Nynsi._

And now he was gone. Killed by his own fucking brother, who'd somehow managed to slip out right under Vasir's nose. Assuming he'd ever even been there, and hadn't just been speaking through one of his people's radios.

_And wouldn't that just piss Nyn off more.. off on a car chase against someone who isn't even him._

"Hey ape."

"Scales." I groaned as she broke my thoughts, glancing behind me to see her carefully limping through the wreckage. "What's the word?"

She gave the barest of Asari shrugs, "I-Sec still cleaning this shit up. Useless tits. Aethyta's on her way, think she's pissed enough to pull Vasir's cruiser from orbit and tear it apart herself."

"That would be a sight." A hand patted the metal. "Come on, still good to sit on, if nothing else."

"Even the wayward waves find shore. You'll get it running again." There was a long groan, her battered cane shaking slightly as she lowered herself to sit beside me. "I'll help. Perfect chance to rip that bitch's shit apart to make this thing dance."

"Still would have flat feet."

"Mmm." Hands pulled her lighter and pipe from her belt and started to work with both of them. "Go ahead ape, say what you want. Doesn't take a mind counselor to see you're drowning."

I waved a hand through the first few puffs, "All this.. for what? We've basically lost at this point, haven't we? I mean.. we won.. but talk about a Pyrrhic victory. Xerol was the only one keeping everything going forwards. Nyn might be able to manage things.. but what's left to manage? Us? Marn and Chen? It took less than a week for practically everyone we know to get killed. Even if we get Chacksin-"

"Which we fucking will."

"-which we fucking will, what the hell do we do next?"

She blew out a long stream of gray smoke before responding. "I don't fucking know Cieran, all right? I've known him since.. damn. Since before he was exiled. Knew his goddess-damned father, his grandfather slept with a friend of mine. Even ran guns with his great-grandmother through the Terminus. Never thought I'd see the end of his line like this."

My eyes narrowed. "There's still Nyn."

"She's not reproducing." The pipe was pulled from her mouth as she waved it irritably. "Goddess ape. You've all but built breakwaters around her you've staked your claim so fucking publicly. And she's done the same goddess-damned thing. Much pressure as she'll feel to she knows you'd never stand for it."

I winced slightly.

"Don't fucking do that. Take this as an example or some shit. Take happiness were you get it."

"Yeah." A hand ran through my now shoulder length hair, drawing winces as I hit tangles. "Seriously though.."

"I was serious. We kill the asshole that killed our friend, rip his eyes out or whatever the hell it is Batarians do to people that deserve to suffer, and then we all go get as blind drunk as Aethyta can manage for us." She took a long drag from her pipe, seemingly to calm herself. "Then.. then we decide what in the deeps we're doing."

Tugging my hand free, I sighed again. "Yeah. Maybe go back to running your shop."

"Would be weird." her head turned as she looked around the wrecked palace. "That shop was my escape from.. well, the maelstrom my life was before. But now?"

"Drag Ghai in there and ravish her on your desk until she pops out a kid for you."

There was a strangled sound as she inhaled wrong, and I had to slap her on the back as she coughed. "Goddess ape. That's the kind of shit I'm supposed to say, not you."

"Yeah well," I waved a hand at everything around us. "You were saying about happiness."

She nodded slowly, "Yeah. Damn. I almost sounded like a matriarch didn't I? I'm too fucking young for that."

I shrugged, the usual banter doing a little to relieve the general depression of the situation. "I have a hard time picturing you as a matriarch. Still. You'd probably still be more fun to hang around with than most of them sound."

She chuckled quietly, puffs of smoke escaping as she did. "I sure as fuck hope so."

"Not sure how I feel about being included in a list like that kid," A new voice joined us, boots crunching on fallen masonry and wood from the décor. "but glad to see you're still alive at least."

"Aethyta." Trena waved a hand in a vaguely welcoming gesture. "'bout time you showed up."

Liara's mother walked into sight, as heavily armed and armored as I'd seen her when she got back from Omega. Not that there was anyone around left to fight, but it was still reassuring to see her like that.

"I already fired the girls responsible for tracking your comms. Useless little birds couldn't even match a standard Salarian hacking override or track a half million going into I-Sec accounts."

I grunted, glad that at least had been taken care of. "Any idea how the insider got through Xerol's checks?"

She glowered, wrinkles appearing a bit as she did so. "No. His bank his clean. So are the last quarters he had. Other slaves all made it pretty damn clear he wanted his revenge. Nothing even in his messages."

"Figures." The sigh pushed some of Trena's smoke away from me. "Wasn't hopeful but why not."

"So. He's really gone then?"

One of my hands waved vaguely towards the conference room. "Vasir, the Spectre, had her medic confirm it before she raced off to chase Chacksin. He took four heavy rounds to the chest, even with as diverse as their organs are that was apparently enough."

"Athame's ass. This has gone from bad to worse for you kids."

Trena gave a quiet chuckle as my lips pulled into a wry smile, "Story of my very short life Matriarch."

"Told you to not to call me that. What's your plan now?"

"Plan?" my companion gave her a frank stare. "Our friends are mostly dead or crippled, what passed for our army is gone, oh, and the fourth generation of a family I fucking liked is laying dead over there. Our plan is to fucking murder his brother."

If Aethyta had had eyebrows I'm sure one would have gone up. "And you plan to do that while sitting on that wreck?"

We both glared at her.

"Look kid, T'laria. Get your asses to sleep if you aren't doing anything productive. You look worse than what a goddess sent blood tide dragged in, and that's hard to do." Dark eyes flicked between us. "I'm not going anywhere. Where's the girl?"

"Chasing after the Suns with Vasir." And the lack of communication was increasingly becoming worrying. Losing Xerol was bad enough. Losing him  _and_ Nynsi in the same day?

_Don't you dare fucking die Nyn.._

"Vasir will take care of her. And if she doesn't, I'll rip her frills off for you."

Not that that would matter even a little bit to me if Nyn didn't come back, but I still nodded thankfully for the sentiment.

"Right. Get moving then. I'll see what in the deeps is going on here."

Trena sighed as Aethyta moved away, already flagging down a luckless I-Sec agent and laying into the poor girl for information. "Given that my room is full of bullet holes, I don't suppose little Shaaryak has a couch I can use?"

"Probably more comfortable than your beds was." I let out a long groan at how much effort it took me to get up. Everything spun slightly for a long moment, which gave me time to wonder just how strong the painkillers I'd been given were. I'd felt fine sitting there, but standing.. my head practically throbbed as the drugs rushed through my system. "Woah.."

Extinguishing her pipe, she shook her head at me as I wobbled. "Athame's tits ape, what did they give you?"

"Not sure." I admitted, reaching out to put a hand on her shoulder, which was prettty much all that was keeping me upright. But on the flip-side, it left me mentally checked out to the point where I stopped thinking about.. well, everything. Which was sort of a plus.

"Come on then. Let's get you into her bed."

It was about twice as difficult as you can imagine for us to move. She was hardly in better shape, and we were basically sharing her cane as we limped along. Stops occurred frequently as either she needed to catch her breath, or I needed to stabilize myself to stop from simply tipping over. Thankfully for our health, if not our pride, a pair of I-Sec officers took pity on us before we'd made it halfway down the hall. Setting aside the Blue Sun weaponry they'd been collecting, they simply used biotics to lift us up and float us along.

If it weren't for the crackling ozone and the bizarre wrenching sensations of the lift, I'd have probably managed to pass out as we glided through the air. As it was, I was mostly trying not to puke on Trena as she muttered oaths under breath at being biotically manhandled like this.

Still, we reached our destination without incident, which was probably more than we cold have managed on our own. I thanked the officers, and tried to hit Trena when she didn't.

"We could have made it on our own ape."

I made a show of rolling my eyes, "Yeah. We were making such good progress. I'm sure we'd have made it sometime before tomorrow morning."

She muttered something uncomplimentary about my parentage, but chortled when I flipped her off in response.

"Been here for months and Little Shaaryak has never let me in here."

I grunted, focusing on the keypad intently as I punched in the security code. "That's because she doesn't like you much."

"It's mutual. Stuck up frigid bitch."

The doors clicked and swung open slightly, and the two of us stumbled into the living area. "Just don't start anything. Please. I don't want to have to break you two apart while I have an arm in a sling."

"I thought human males enjoyed seeing women fight." Tired eyes glanced around the room. "Not bad though, not nearly as overdone as I'd have thought. She didn't inherit that from Xerol at least."

I winced at the mention of his name, and then firmly shoved those emotions back into their box before slamming the lid shut and tossing it into my hind-brain. "I don't think she actually used this room much until I started living here."

She grunted, limping towards the couch. "She didn't really do much before you did either. Bounced from position to position, trying to find her bloody place. Not that her own kind were much help. Even here they don't care much for their women having that much authority. Chauvinistic four eyed male assholes. Only thing she's done that I like about her, not put up with their bullshit."

My lips curled slightly as I staggered towards the bedroom doors. "See? Common ground. Now find some more."

"Whatever ape. Goddess..." there was a very long moan as she laid down. "..please tell me you bought this magnificent thing."

"Sorry. All Nyn."

"Don't you dare breath a word of what I just said then." She let out an almost sexual sound of pleasure as she settled in, grabbing at the thick blanket I'd draped over the back for comfort's sake. "Keep your gun on you ape."

"I'm not a kid scales." I flicked the lights off and reset the rooms security before setting the blinds to close. Once the room was mostly dark, I flicked the switch to close the bedroom's doors behind me. "Tomorrow.."

"We get ready to hunt that fucker down if Vasir and little Shaaryak didn't already." A blue hand waved vaguely, "Get your ass to bed ape."

"Enjoy the couch scales." The doors clicked shut before I could hear her reply, which was probably for the best.

Only early afternoon or not, I was fully intending on not waking up until either Nyn came back, Aethyta woke me, or the next sunrise. As it was, it felt like I'd barely spent five minutes her wonderfully soft bed before it started to move, the motions jerking me awake.

"Cieran, it's just me." a strong hand grabbed my forearm as I started to scramble for my gun. I couldn't really see anything in the dark, but the earthy spices of Nyn's lips met mine a few moments later. "It's me."

"Nyn... did you?"

There was a quiet growl before her hand left me, and the sounds of her angrily tearing her armor off reached my ears. "He wasn't in the car. Two Batarians, both in Blue Sun armor, but neither of them was Chacksin. Vasir interrogated both of them with one of her underlings, some human mercenary. Apparently he was never even there, just speaking over their headsets."

I let out a long sigh, reaching up to rub the sleep out of my eyes with my functioning arm. "Are you... stupid question, of course you're not all right."

"No." Breath seethed between her teeth. "And I won't be until I have his corpse at my feet."

"I'm not going to argue with this plan." My eyes, a bit adjusted to the darkness, watched as she tossed her breastplate aside. "Trena and I are going to get to work on my armor first thing."

"How long?"

I winced. "I don't know. If it was just me, I'd say over a month. With her helping, maybe less, but neither of us is at our best right now."

"I'll bring in people from the junkyards." Her boots slammed into a table with far more force than was necessary. "You'll need to triple check any work they do, but I want you to be ready by the end of the week."

"That's.. ambitious." Even with plenty of mechanically skilled people helping it would be a pain, especially since Trena and I would have to constantly be looking over their shoulders to make sure there wasn't a repeat of the last time that I'd let someone else work on it. And even with their help, there wasn't anyway I was letting anyone touch the OS, which would need a lot of work if we were going to include any of Yi'ren's armor into the systems.

Her posture tightened with anger, and I didn't need to see her hands to know that they were curled into fists. "Cieran. He  _killed_ Xerol. I'm going to rip his  _eyes_  out and crush them in front of him one at a time. Even if the First Pillar didn't demand retribution for what he'd done, I would still dedicate everything I have to it. Either he dies or I do. There is no other option."

"No." My eyes narrowed as I fought to situp, my own emotions banishing the remnants of the painkillers and sleep. "Those aren't your options. There  _aren't_ options. He dies. You live. Period. End of story."

"Ciearn.." her voice was low.

"Nyn." I cut her off, "No. If you get to kill him all up close and personal, fine. He's an asshole who probably deserves worse. But if the only thing we can do is have Vasir blast his hideout from orbit with her damn cruiser, we do that and then dig his body out to make sure. I'm not letting you throw yourself into some suicide mission. We've.." I had to suck in a long breath against the pain that had started up again, both physically and mentally. "..dammit Nyn. We've lost almost everything. I'm not losing you."

"Cieran.." her head cocked slightly to one side, her dark eyes briefly reflecting the low light from the window. ".. as much as I appreciate it, this is hardly the best time to tell me that you're in love with me."

My mouth opened. Then shut. Then opened again. "I.. didn't say.."

"You didn't have to." the bed shifted again as she crawled into it, a warm hand gently pushing me back down. "Not with the exact words. I believe the emotion was quite clear. I.. swear by the Pillars that I won't seek death in this."

"Thank you.."

Her lips pressed against my cheek. "Thank you my strange, human Harath'krem."

I let out a groan as my shoulder throbbed, closely followed by my elbow. Her right hand slid across my chest to gently brush against my arm, fingers trailing across my shirt and onto my skin. "Thank you for which part.. caring? Not wanting to see you dead? Wanting to kill Chacksin for you?"

There was a dry chuckle before another kiss found my neck. "All of them at once." Her lips were very warm as she brushed them against my skin again. "And for falling in love with me, of course."

"I.." my skin flushed a bit. "Nyn.."

"Cieran." her hand left me, briefly, before fingers found my chin and firmly turned me so that her four eyes could stare into my pair. "I do not want to think right now. Not about what happened today. Not about what will happen tomorrow. Understand?"

"I understand, Tarath'shan." Leaning my neck up a bit, I pressed my lips against hers for a long moment before pulling back. "Although my arm is a bit of a problem."

Her teeth gleamed briefly in the low lighting. "I do not believe it to be insurmountable. Do you?"

I shivered as her warm body pressed closer against mine, reminding just how very muscled and curved it was. "No.. but Nyn.."

There was a growl as she shifted, her heavy form swiftly straddling me as she stared downwards. "What part about not wanting to think did you not understand?"

My lips twitched. "You said this wasn't the best time to admit to being in love with you."

"It isn't." her shoulders rose and fell as her head tilted to the right, both of her hands falling to start carefully tugging my shirt up. "But given our situation, I suppose there may not be a better time."

That morbid though almost was enough to ruin the mood, and might have entirely if she hadn't leaned down and firmly pressed our lips together. My good arm moved up to wrap around her waist, and for a few long moments I was simply able to enjoy the feel of her body against mine as our mouths and tongues moved with each others.

Breaking apart for air a few moments later, I breathed out a quiet sigh. "So. Apparently I'm in love with a high caste Batarian woman."

"You are." leaning back, she very gently began to remove my shirt, careful not to put any strain on my arm. "Though that sounds better than a Batarian head of family being in love with a human mechanic."

For some reason, just hearing her say that made my heart beat just a bit faster, and did more than all of the lust and arousal to push the depression of the day away. My clothing was barely out of the way before I'd grabbed her by the neck and yanked her back down. Her startled exclamation shifted quickly into a quiet moan as our kiss resumed.

And for the rest of the night at least, we didn't think about what had happened, who we had lost, and what we were going to have to do because of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So.. this chapter came out a lot faster than I thought, mostly because writing is turning increasingly into my refuge from everything else that's happening in my life. Not going into details, but things aren't exactly going well in either my work or personal life. But in good news, that means that another chapter is done five days early.
> 
> This one is a bit back and forth between the angst and depression of everything that had just happened mixed with the mild happiness of Cieran and Nynsi finally admitting things openly with one another. Of course, given that there's still seven chapters to go, they were probably smart to go ahead and admit it before things turn up worse. Which they might.
> 
> I'm also making a bit more effort to vary up people's dialogue, to make it more clear what species they are just by what they say and how they say it. Trena is a bit of an outlier thanks to her, shall we say, colorful language, but I'm hoping to put in more phrases and sayings that make everyone sound a little less anglo-american.


	30. The Sister

I frowned at Nynsi, leaning against the bathroom doorway and watching as she washed her face. "You're sure you don't need me there?"

"Cieran." her voice was muffled a bit by her hands, but her upper set of eyes found mine in the mirror. "Our culture doesn't place the same importance on this sort of thing as yours apparently does. My Patriarch has already risen to the Pillars, this is just dealing with what he left behind."

_Just his body is all._

Waking up had been both pleasant, given that Nynsi's naked body had been pressed against mine, and unpleasant, in that everything had resumed hurting. A few more places in particular, where Nyn had let herself get a bit.. unrestrained. Still, what she'd done to 'apologize' for the new bite marks had definitely been worth it, even if she'd had to put some medigel onto me after.

Of course, those pleasant memories had faded once we'd gotten up, and she had outlined what was happening today. Namely, what passed for a Batarian funeral. Now, I've never been comfortable at funerals to begin with, not that anyone really was, but she'd been honestly surprised when she realized that I thought I was going to be attending. Apparently it was just going to be her with a few assistants, with Ghai and Iyate, as his Harath'krem, would watch via live-stream from their respective hospitals. And even then, it was hardly going to be a grieving, tear-filled affair.

As she'd said, as far as she was concerned, his body was just an empty shell at this point. Practically garbage. Nothing that to be attached to or to regard as Xerol himself. And as for grieving.. I got the feeling she was holding everything in as tightly as she could, and would continue to do so until her father was dead.

_And once that happens.. who the fuck knows what's going to happen. With anything._

Pushing all of that firmly away, I covered a yawn before speaking. "So. Should I assume I'll be working on my armor today?"

Her hands flicked water into the sink before reaching for some kind of sonic cleaner. "Is there another matter of critical import that you should be doing instead?"

My lips twitched, and I took a few slow steps forward to stand behind her. "I can think of one thing."

I couldn't stop the smile as her skin flushed a bit, shifting to a dark maroon from its natural teal as my right hand found her side and slowly ran down it. "Harath'krem.. we hardly have the time."

"I know." I sighed, leaning in to kiss the cartilage plate on the back of her neck. "Still, don't tell me you aren't tempted."

There was a quite sound, not quite a groan and not quite a growl either, as my hand found its way under her shirt to massage her skin. She allowed me to continue for a little while, leaning back against me and closing her lower eyes in contentment before eventually pushing at my forearm. "Of course I am.. but later."

Regretfully I pulled back, rubbing at my own face to get some of the leftover sleep out of my eyes. "What are you going to be doing after?"

She took another moment to gather herself before turning on the whatever-it-was, the low hum nearly making my teeth vibrate as she started to run it over her skin. "Once my Patriarch's remains are disposed of, I'll be tracking down Aethyta and the Vasirs."

I grunted. "Think any of them will have leads for us?"

All of her eyes narrowed slightly, "They had better. He's on planet, somewhere, and we have eliminated much of the support base his wife built for him. There cannot be many hiding places left at this point."

"Let's hope so." A hand rubbed at the back of my neck, wincing slightly as I tugged on my still too-long wet hair. "I suppose I should go wake up scales. When should we expect the help for the armor?'

"By noon. So if you could have a plan of how you're going to proceed by then.."

I moved my hand to her shoulder and squeezed, "I know Nyn. I'll do everything I can to get it ready as fast as I can."

She let out a long breath, her motions jerking slightly before she resumed smoothly cleaning her skin. "Thank you, Harath'krem."

Leaning in, I waited for her to turn slightly so that I could kiss the cartilage band next to her mouth. "Stop by the garage later?"

Her lips curled slightly, "I'm looking forwards to seeing you in a.. controlling position."

I rolled my eyes slightly, but gave her skin another soft kiss before drifting out of the bathroom. Stopping only to grab my sub-machine gun from the nightstand on what had become my side of the bed, I took a moment to get it fixed to my belt, and tried not to wince as the motion pulled on the right side of my neck.

Sighing, and bracing myself for what was sure to be a teasing conversation, I flicked the door control panel.

To my complete lack of surprise, Trena was still asleep, but at least she'd left her clothes on. Well, most of them. Her shirt had been tossed aside, revealing the Asari version of a sports bra above a absolutely ripped stomach marred only slightly by the scars from her surgeries. The blanket that she'd pulled over her had been kicked off, which also pointedly revealed where one of her hands was.

At one point in my life, this would have been a mildly embarrassing moment, at the very least. In the months since I'd gotten here and had to deal with Trena T'laria on a daily basis, I just rolled my eyes.

_At least she's mostly dressed this time. And Ghai isn't here._

"Wake up Scales." My omni-tool flashed to life, fingers shifting across it to bring the lights up and to open the blinds.

There was a long groan from my Asari friend, both of her arms thankfully shifting as she stretched. "You're shitting me right... can't be morning already."

"I'm not and it is." Walking over I flicked at her forehead with my good hand. "Come on. We've got a crap-ton of shit to do."

Gem colored eyes blinked open as she groaned again, trying to shift an arm to bat me away and shield them from the light at the same time. "From what I heard you  _did_ plenty last night. Goddess ape, these walls aren't soundproofed you know."

My skin flushed a bit. "Don't want to hear it Scales."

"I didn't either." she groused. "If you'd have both been Asari I could have at least enjoyed the mental movie. But all I could bloody see where her eyes and your tides carried fur."

"Hair." I corrected for the millionth time. "And I don't want to know what you did or didn't do. What I do want is for you to get your blue us up and off the couch so we can eat."

There was a good bit more of muttering, cursing of Athame, cursing of me, and a bit of unspoken longing for Ghai before I managed to get her up and dressed. Tossing her her cane, the pair of us made our way to the kitchens where we made ourselves a light breakfast. Nynsi hadn't said that she was having the servants keep themselves scarce, but at the very least they didn't seem to have returned yet.

After wolfing down some dried cuts of meat and bread, we wandered towards the garage, nodding to the few I-Sec agents still moving through the halls.

"So." Trena sipped some of the bitter, scalding tea she preferred as she limped along. "You and little Shaaryak are official now?"

I gave her a severe glance out of the corner of my eyes, which predictably bounced right off of her.

"Told you, those doors were hardly sound proofed." she shrugged, her lips twitching. "Personally I think it's about damn time, even if I didn't think you'd take my advice quite that quickly."

"Scales.."

"Fine." Her cane swung in the direction of my shins, making me do a little hop to avoid her. "Work then. What's the plan?"

"We sit back and watch a bunch of Batarians work. Then recheck everything they did about a million times." I sighed. "It's going to be long days, Nyn wants this done before the week is out."

She made a choking sound, quickly lowering her tea cup. "Athame's azure! She'd better be giving us a damned army if she expects us to fix your wreck that quickly."

"She's calling in workers from the junkyards, maybe other places." My face tightened slightly as I frowned. "You know.. I just realized that I don't even know what exactly Xero... Nyn, even owns at this point."

She thankfully ignored my slip-up. "If it's in this district, figure that she owns it. I might have been the preferred mechanic but they have their own shops to work for the lower caste exiles."

"Even in exile, clinging to the castes.."

"That's what they do Ape. Athame's ass, figured you'd be used to it by now."

I shrugged. "I mostly am." And scary as it was, I actually was getting to that point. Not that I was ok with slavery, nor did I ever intend to be, but as for the high-caste, middle-caste, lower-caste and all of the various subdivisions to be found therein.. I was. With Nyn's help I'd even started to pick up on the subtle differences to how Batarians held themselves, how their postures and degree to which they tilted their heads indicated what caste they were likely from.

But once and a while bits and pieces still surprised me. In this case, being reminded that only highborn could really own business. Sure, the middle-castes might run them, and the lowborn might be the bulk of the employees, but the profits flowed all the way up. Xerol, having both the caste and the factor of no longer being an exile, had definitely dominated the economic scene in Khar'shan minor and had been encroaching into the Asari-run River District. Re'hat and Che'hat and owned their own small pieces, but that had been small change compared to the Patriarch's various monopolies.

"Goddess. At this point she really does own everything, doesn't she?" Trena shook her head, similar thoughts only now occurring to her. "With Xerol and the twins gone, I can't think of any other highborn around."

I thought over everyone we'd met, and couldn't come up with any others. The few other upper-crust Batarians I'd met at Xerol's dinners had always been middle-caste of varying import, not actual highborn.

"Think the Hegemony will send more?"

Her lips twisted unhappily. "They'll probably try. Given.."

"That's she's a she." My own twisted slightly. I hadn't had much experience with Batarian chauvinism, it tended not to last on Illium, but I'd heard plenty of stories from Nyn and Marn.

Knocking back the last of her drink, she negligently tossed the cup onto a decorative desk as we passed. "By the goddess ape, stop worrying about shit like that. We've got an asshole to kill, remember?"

"You brought it up, but all right." I shook my head, as if the motion would clear it. "Right."

Nodding politely to the I-Sec officer standing guard near the garage entrance, and accepting the condolences from the grizzled matron, we entered the cavernous room. It wasn't as shot to hell as most of the halls were, but there was still some new bullet holes here and there. Still, Yi'ren's armor seemed intact, and someone had even dragged what was left of mine back to my work area.

If anything, it looked even worse than I remembered.

The left arm hadn't torn free cleanly. It had taken most of the shoulder actuators and motors with it, warping the entire armored block on the shoulder itself where the machinery had been ripped free. Of course, that was hardly the only carnage on the left side. The entire shin plate on that leg was gone, blasted free to expose the wiring and artificial muscles and pistons inside. Most of which, naturally, had been wrecked.

"Goddess ape.." Trena shook her head as we approached. "Did it look this bad yesterday?"

I winced. "At least the left arm is mostly intact."

She snorted. "Bet you fifty credits you have to replace almost every plate on the back."

"No bet."

Which turned out to be a wise decision on my part as I moved closer and circled behind it. Being used by Chen and I for cover might have kept us alive, but the Blue Suns had done their damnedest just to shoot straight through it. The engine and eezo core looked intact, but I'd need to replace several circuit boards and most of the control wiring in addition to the armor.

"Figure strip all the armor off both suits, pile it aside. Figure out what we can use from hers and get that installed before we start breaking out my spares?"

There was a grunt. "Or we could readjust hers and acclimate it to you."

"There's now way we could get it fixed, adjusted for my size, and then change the entire system to work for a human inside of five days. Or get the smell out. Plus.."  _Wearing the armor of a woman I burned alive while she was inside of it.. call me superstitious or paranoid, but in no way does that seem like a good idea._

"Fair enough." she tossed her cane onto a tool shelf where it rattled against several tools before extracting her pipe and lighter from her belt. "What about her gun at least?"

I eyed the heavy double-barreled cannon. "We'd have to rig it into a grip mount."

Her pipe waved with her hand before she lit it, "I can handle that. Too bad your right hand is dominant, be easy to work the cooling feed into it while it's separate."

"Yeah, well. Can't exactly learn that in a week."

"Less than a week ape." Smoke started to curl as she gave a few puffs, the air filling the vanilla scent. "Get your damned omni-tool open so we can get some plans drawn up."

The next few hours passed in a blur. Rather than all showing up at once, the 'help' arrived in small groups, their aircars landing on the yard outside of the garage proper. A few I kinda-sorta recognized from the junkyards or from the garage's mechanic team, but most were new faces. Not all were Batarian either, several Asari were amongst them, to Trena's delight.

"Scales." I had to whack her over the head more than once when I caught her staring at a blue ass or chest.

"Dammit ape." she batted me away, "Look at them! Years of working manual labor with minimal biotic talent.." I could practically see the drool as one of them, nearly as tall as the late Doctor V'Rae but who was even more ripped than Aethyta hefted up the left arm without any aid and hauled it into place to be re-attached.

"Scales." I flicked the side of her head. "Ghai. Ghai is going to rip your arms off and beat you to death with them."

"Hey, I don't think she'd mind a bit of company in bed with us.." her eyes practically glazed over. "..from time to time.."

I had to count to ten in English. Then in common Asari. Then in highborn Batarian. And then remind myself that Asari weren't like humans when it came to relationships. Exclusive partners tended to be rare, even when they did fall in love with each other. "Scales.. just.. ugh. Don't drool on the parts, all right?"

"I don't drool." her lips curled upwards, "But I wouldn't mind finding other uses for my-"

My hand snapped over her mouth before she could continue. "Scales.. just... I've walked in on you before all right? I get the idea."

She chuckled, and I had to jerk my flesh away before she could bite me. "Fine Ape. But if you don't see me and muscles over there later, don't come looking."

I sighed, and resolved very firmly to keep both her and the Asari workers very,  _very_ occupied for the rest of the day.

Still, things progressed quickly through the morning and into the afternoon. With Trena and I supervising the good dozen and a half workers we'd gotten, they had managed to strip all of the battered and broken armor off of both suits before re-attaching the left arm to mine. While I worked on getting all of the other damaged equipment out of my exoskeleton, she handled getting the massive cannon free from Yi'ren's.

Nyn showed up around mid-afternoon. And, true to form, she stayed near the entrance, apparently quite content to watch me boss around her workers. I wasn't quite sure how that was a turn-on for her, but I wasn't about to complain.

Of course, my happiness at seeing her waned a bit when someone else showed up about ten minutes later.

"Well. Haven't you all gotten busy." Tela Vasir strolled in, still fully armed and armored as she glanced around at the organized chaos. "Still. At least you aren't crying in a corner somewhere."

Behind her, Nyn's lips twitched unhappily but she didn't say anything.

"Spectre Vasir." I tried to keep my voice polite as I turned away from the still in pieces armor. "I'd thought you and your sister would be organizing the hunt for the Blue Suns."

She shrugged negligently. "Shera and the old spymaster are handling things. I've got some of my people contacting the local information brokers to see what they can pull in."

My Tarath'shan pushed off from the wall and followed her over, "Have you tried contact the shadow broker?"

Vasir was good, I had to give her that. She didn't even twitch at the name. "You have a small fortune laying around little girl?"

Nyn wasn't able to hold back another twitch, but she at least managed to keep her head from tilting right.

"So." I quickly moved to get things back on track, giving Trena a warning look when it seemed like she was going to involve herself in the conversation. The idea of her talking with a Spectre was too horrifying to contemplate. "No offense Spectre, but why are you here? I mean, Illium isn't even really in Citadel space."

The tattooed Spectre chuckled, her legs carrying her in a slow circle around the work area. "That doesn't mean that the council doesn't have an interest in this cesspool of a planet. No offense."

There was muted chuckles, and I had to giver her more props for knowing the room. "No, cesspool is about right." There were murmurs of approval. "Still. Aethyta said you owed her a favor."

Her lips twitched as she regarded the pair of Batarians and an Asari as they pulled out the rest to of the torn apart shoulder. "Let's just say she found me adrift a few centuries back and leave it at that. Seemed like a good time to kill two fish with one harpoon. Republic's worried over the," she sneered, "political ramifications of what's happening here."

More chuckles, less muted this time, with a few jeers at the Asari government thrown in.

She kept moving, continuing on her theme. "If the Hierarchy or the Union get wind of the full details here there will be censures of the Republic, at the very least. They both know that Illium is hardly a distinct entity, free from Thessia's control. That a Terminus mercenary band could not only sell slaves on world, but push it towards civil war.. well, let's just say that you're luck that I'm the one here."

_In a fucked up way she's right about that. Nihilus or Bau wouldn't be so bad, but if was Saren... ugh._

"We've already shut down most of their operations." Nynsi spoke as she slid over to stand next to me, all of her eyes focused on the moving Spectre. "And eliminated one of the leaders."

"That you did, and considering what you had to work with, I'd even say you did a decent enough job." Vasir tilted her head towards us in a vaguely respectful way. "That just leaves one more to go."

"In theory." I shook my head. "Chacksin might be the guy running this right but we have no idea about those 'actual' True Sons, or how many he might have brought back from Omega with him."

"About a hundred, plus his own Blue Suns." Vasir shrugged. "From the body count, we cut down about a thirty of them here. Just a hundred and fifty or so to go."

Nynsi continued frowning, "How difficult is it to track one hundred and fifty mercenaries who just arrived on world?"

"Try it sometime girl." Some of the camaraderie and mirth faded from the Spectre's voice, "I don't have unlimited funds or contacts. Talk to your spymaster if you don't like the intel."

My Tarath'shan looked like she wanted desperately to snipe back but managed to keep herself outwardly calm at least. "My apologies, Spectre. I did not mean to insinuate that your task was easy."

Vasir shrugged slightly, but let it pass. "Speaking of, where is the old fish?"

"Right here Tela." Aethyta's strong voice carried easily over the sound of the work, the Matriarch arriving through one of the side entrances. Strangely she was in her casual, bartender's clothing rather than armor, but then again she'd probably just come from one of her locations. "And call me an old fish again and I'll remind you just who taught you to fight dirty."

The Spectre's lips pulled into a wicked little grin but she nodded.

_Huh. Never would have guessed that._

"And calm down Shaaryak, we're doing what we can. It's chaotic out there right now, with I-Sec hauling their asses left and right trying to bust up the gang." The Matriarch's amusement faded into a scowl, "Can't get a good read on which groups are retreating where right now. You're going to have to be patient."

"I am capable of being patient." Nynsi drew herself up a bit formally, as if offended at the very idea. Which she probably was, come to think of it. "I was just being hopeful."

Aethyta nodded slightly. "No harm in that."

"Once we do locate that asshole," Trena interjected herself into the conversation, "How the hell are we taking them out? We don't exactly have an army of our own any more."

Nynsi and I both winced, but nodded.

Vasir grunted in a very Aethyta like way. "As much as I like my team, taking on a few hundred mercs is a bit beyond us. If they're stupid and are outside of the cities, I can call in an orbital strike or two without complications."

Trena frowned, "Can't you do that in a city too? Spectre status and all that shit?"

Said Spectre rolled her eyes, "If I want to deal with an assload of paperwork. Athame's ass girl, you have no idea how much the Councilor harps on us for that kind of thing. All the Spectres who do that kind of at-all-costs shit aren't Asari. If they're smart and stay holed up like varren in another warehouse or some kind of facility, we're calling in my little sister."

Which would be another bloodbath. A few hundred or thousand I-Sec officers swarming in against a few hundred well entrenched mercenaries and gang members would be several times the battle that had cost us damn near everyone.

I blew out a breath, "What about a commando raid? I know," I pushed on before anyone could say something, "We'd have to figure out where they're hold up first, but if we could get a team or two inside and take down their security.."

"Just like they did to you." Vasir favored me with another grin, "I can see why your Tarath'shan is keeping you around."

Nynsi started a bit at the term. "You're aware of.."

"Spectre, girl. Spectre." Her head cocked to one side. "I'll have to talk to Shera, see how many prisoners she's taken. I'm sure a few of them would be willing to sell out their friends for a bit of payment. Get a bunch of them all looking to be insiders could speed up locating their new base of operations."

Aethyta nodded slowly, "She's got a good bunch of them, last I heard."

"Well then," she showed her teeth, "I've got an appointment. I'll keep you informed old fish."

The Matriarch gave her a look of reproof that bounced off the younger Asari without any issue. "Keep all of us informed girl. Shaaryak is as involved in this as I am."

"Of course." Tela Vasir gave a smile I was pretty sure was insincere as she turned away, striding towards the open exit. "I'll be in touch."

"I doubt it." Nynsi muttered into my ear, not quite  _glaring_ at the Council agent. "Stuck up bitch."

I patted her forearm with my hand, and tried not to smile. "Now now dear. Don't antagonize the woman who could kill us all if she's willing to put up with some paperwork."

There was a muted growl. "Hardly. I've heard of Asari Spectres who were far worse than even Arterius when it comes to collateral damage. She lied to our faces."

Aethyta had moved close enough to overhear, and just shook her head as she moved to stand next to us. "That's what Spectres do girl. Anything to get the job done. And stuck up bitch though she is, Vasir's the best Asari agent in the game right now."

"Took her all of two seconds to charm all of the lowcaste." Nyn shook her head in displeasure as the Spectre hopped into a waiting aircar. "And she could have killed them all the second after she'd done so."

"That's what Spectres do." I parroted Aethyta, shaking my head before blowing out a breath. "At least she's doing something now."

They both nodded slightly before the Matriarch turned away. "You kids keep taking care of yourselves. I've got my girls keeping their eyes on the horizon, and even if Vasir doesn't keep you updated I will."

Nynsi nodded in thanks. "Thank you Matriarch."

"Told you not to call me that."

My Tarath'shan's lips curled slightly, and the mood of our little trio brightened slightly. "Thank you, Aethyta."

"Better."

"Sir?" One of the Asari, she couldn't have been older than fifty, nervously approached me. "Um, do I call you sir?"

"He is my Harath'krem." Nynsi spoke before I could, "Sir or Master Kean, either is sufficient Erana."

"Ah, yes madam." she awkwardly tilted her head to the right. It was painfully clear from the motion that she knew she was supposed to do that when talking with somone at Nyn's level, but that she had no idea why. "Master Kean, we need your direction. There are some problems with the engine mounting.."

I sighed. "I was afraid of that. Come on, we'll take a long. Will I see you at dinner Nyn?"

Her lower eyes flicked over to mine, "I do believe so, yes. Will you be joining us, Ma.. Aethyta?"

The Matriarch shook her head, "Thanks girl but no, I have a meeting with some damned councilors in Nos Astra. Useless tits couldn't find their own without me there."

I snorted and Nynsi smiled, "Perhaps tomorrow then."

"Goddess knows I could do with some food that's not from my bars.."

The poor Asari girl was looking even more out of her depth, and I took pity on her, waving at the two women behind me as I moved back towards the activity around the exoskeleton. They, already debating what to have made for tomorrow, barely even acknowledged my silent farewell.

"Thank you sir." Erana's voice was quiet. "Madam Shaaryak.. intimidates me a bit."

"New employee?" I hazarded a guess.

"Yes." she sheepishly nodded. "My sister Illyan, the tall one there, she helped get me the job. My mother wanted me out of the house.."

I clapped her on the shoulder, and then had to hold her upright when she nearly tipped over. "Don't worry about her, she's not so bad once you get to know her."

She nodded again, but I didn't think she really believed me. "You're her.. harathkrem?"

"Hay-rath krem." My shoulders rose and fell. "I'm her.. bodyguard, adviser. That kind of thing."

"Oh."

"So. The engine mounting?"

"Yes sir," I was starting to wonder if she had some kind of condition she nodded so damn much. "The engine itself looked ok from what my sister said, and Kollun said the eezo core was intact, but the main locks are straining."

I sighed. "All right, let's see this.."

The rest of the afternoon, and most of the evening was spent further disassembling the engine block to replace the mount locks that kept the thing in place. And when I wasn't supervising that, I was hauling Trena away from Illyan. Still, by the time we started to kick everyone out for the night, we'd made pretty good progress. It was all still in pieces, true, but at least nothing broken was attached to it.

_Tomorrow the actuators and the mount locks, then the armor and main gun the days after. Mix in some functional testing.. and we might just be ready to kick Chacksin's ass after all._

Of course, that was assuming that our enemy didn't try to reverse the downward spiral that the True Sons had found themselves in. Which he did the very next day, launching an all out assault on several I-Sec offices.. including Captain Shera Vasir's.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was hoping to have this out yesterday.. but quite simply I had the motivation and drive today, but not then. So yeah, sorry about that. Well, here we have more of an extended scene with Tela Vasir, plus a bit of how Nynsi and Cieran are planning on proceeding. A few more fun scenes between Cieran and Trena, with Nynsi and Cieran remaining close
> 
> And I probably have a problem with cliff hangers like that.. but hey, they seem to keep everyone interested in what's coming next :). The next chapter will focus a bit on expanding on that last line, and putting a few pieces into play for the long finish to the Act and to Arrival as a story.


	31. The Jack

"What happened?" I'd had to help a hobbling Trena along as best I could one handed, and so we were both a bit winded by the time we'd made it to the conference room. Everyone in it except us was already armed and armored, their helmets either on the table or on the chairs they were disdaining using.

Nynsi, along with Aethyta, Chen, and Marn, all glanced up at our arrival, but it was Aethyta who spoke.

"Chacksin made a move." The Matriarch was frowning as she regarded whatever was streaming across her omni-tool's projected screen. "Either he recognizes how desperate his situation is or he's as crazy as a slasher fish that's smelled blood."

My Tarath'shan scowled. "As much as I want to rip his eyes out one at a time, no one has ever accused him of being stupid."

Trena growled. "Would someone tell us what he fucking did? We've been in the goddess damned garage since before dawn."

"The Blue Suns, plus a whole lot of True Sons in that gray and yellow armor we caught those other ones in just hit seven different precinct centers." Marn shifted her omni-tool, sending the data to the table to bring up the various news feeds so that we could see. "Casualties are pretty high right now."

I winced, shaking my head as I took in the various scenes. Most were long-range shots from hover-cams, showing figures engaged in combat outside of I-Sec facilities. "Captain Vasir?"

"Her main center was the first hit." Nynsi planted her hands on the table. "Last we heard she was still alive, and that her sister was there with her own people holding the place."

"I take it you're going in?"

She nodded, "We will be backing up Aehthyta."

Said Matriarch nodded as she shut her omni-tool off and started checking over her guns. "I just got that young tit to start listening to me. Not letting her off the hook now."

I glanced down at the sling holding my left arm and tried to fight back a scowl. Not that I was eager to throw myself into mortal peril, but if my options were sitting here while Nyn was in peril and I could only wait, or going with.. I'd go with, thanks.

"You can't drive Cieran." Nynsi, proving yet again that she knew me, cut me off before I could even try to formulate an argument. "Or provide sensor data. Or comms data. You're staying here while the local I-Sec agents stay on guard."

"And if they hit us here again?" Trena grumbled, her hands twisting her cane back and forth. "Two dozen bored cops aren't going to keep our asses alive."

"Well they're going to have to." Chen chuckled darkly. "Unless you have an army hidden somewhere we could use? Sederis is talking big shit but so far she's hardly done anything but clean house."

Nyn growled at the woman's name. "She won't even respond to my messages."

"You aren't Xerol." Aethyta slid her pistol back into place before pulling out a very customized Visage that looked like it had been cut down by half its length. "And even he could barely get that wild animal to listen to him."

I felt my eyebrows go up a bit. I'd known that the Matriarch didn't have a high opinion of the Eclipse's leader and founder, but apparently there was more animosity there than I'd thought.

_Not that surprising though. Even if I barely remember a word from that rant in game, those messages Xerol showed me were fucked up enough. How the hell she keeps the Eclipse running I have no idea._

"Will you be in contact?" Trena regarded all four of them in turn, "A comms feed would at least be nice so we know you aren't all dying on the floor somewhere."

I had to fight to keep a smile from my face.

"Fine." Nyn waved a hand, "But maintain your supervision on the armor."

My companion rolled her eyes, "Yes, yes, not going to let some paid off asshole fuck with the ape's armor again."

"Good. Marn, Chen. If you could get our vehicle ready. I'll meet you there in a few minutes."

The two Batarians nodded, grabbing their gear up and quickly departing. Aethyta followed, absently holstering her rifle and grabbing Trena's arm as she walked past.

"Hey! Hands off you old fish!"

Aethyta muttered something about Tela Vasir's parentage that sounded rather uncomplimentary, unlikely, but amusing all the same. Trena apparently thought so as well because she barked out a laugh and didn't resist being guided out.

Shaking my head at them, I moved so that I could meet Nyn halfway.

"I'm not going to die today, Cieran. Not with  _him_ still out there." Both of her hands gently wrapped around mine, seeming even larger in their armored gauntlets. "I won't forget the promise I made you."

"Good." My shoulders relaxed, very slightly, and I leaned in to brush our lips together. "Because I'd be very disappointed if you did."

Her lips twitched. "It would not do for a Tarath'shan to disappoint her Harath'krem, would it? People might talk."

"They would indeed." I agreed, pressing closer for a longer kiss. There was a quietly pleased sound, but the moment hardly seemed like it had even begun before she slowly pulled back. "Don't get injured either, please.. not all that fun."

Dark eyes seemed to glimmer in the light. "I don't recall it being that severe of a problem for you."

"Well.." my skin flushed slightly. "You know what I meant."

She chuckled, leaned in for another quick kiss, then pulled back to grab her helmet. I stayed beside her as she flicked the lights off and headed out of the room, the pair of us smoothly walking through the halls. A few servants and construction workers had been brought in to start the long process of repairs, but they hadn't gotten this far yet. Which mostly left the place looking like a warzone, but someone had managed to take a solvent to the blood at least.

 _If you didn't know where it happened, you couldn't even tell that Xerol died right... there._ My eyes half closed as I fought those thoughts off.  _No, not any good. Focus on what you can do, not on what happened._

Nyn didn't say anything, but she did wrap an arm around my waist, letting my move my right arm around hers in kind. It didn't last long, given the short distance to the garage, but I still murmured my thanks into her ear all the same.

She just brushed her cheek through my goatee, gave me a quiet smile, then headed towards the car.

I let her go, letting my eyes linger a bit on the specific parts of her armor that enhanced her.. figure, before turning away and blowing out my breath.

"Come on ape, I know you like her ass but still."

"Says the woman who still can't tear her eyes off Illyan?"

Trena shrugged, utterly unbothered. "What? Don't tell me you didn't notice it."

Given that Nyn's car hadn't left yet, I didn't respond to that. I mean, yes, I was very much attached to her, and had yet to find anything to complain about when it came to her sex appeal.. but I was still a human male. Somethings were hard to not notice. And Illyan definitely didn't have any issues with people noticing her. I'd ended up spending far too much time in the morning both keeping Trena away from her and keeping  _her_ away from Trena.

"Just get back to work scales, we've got a deadline to meet, remember?"

"Yeah yeah. You're big fucking gun is almost done, coolant line will be finished before nightfall."

"Good." I flicked my eyes to the half a dozen workers surrounding my armor. "Illyan? How's it going?"

The towering Asari glanced over at us, "Not bad today boss. Bosses. Left shoulder should be working, we're re-attaching the arm itself now. Ferai here," she clapped a Batarian on the shoulder, and the poor guy's knees actually buckled slightly. "Did a clever bit of work, got your omni-launcher built right into the forearm now."

_Why didn't I think of that?_

"The magazine?"

"Box style." Said Batarian quickly took a few steps away from his supervisor, keeping his head demurely to the left as he spoke. His gloved hand rose, pointing out where he'd managed to shift the internal equipment to fit the tech mine dispenser. "Should still fit forty of them. I can mount reloads to your waist if you like."

"Do it."  _Another few things to double-check.. dammit. But it is a good idea._ "You see any issues hitting our targets today?"

Bulging biceps flexed as Illyan crossed her arms and huffed. "We're professionals boss."

I tilted my head slightly to the right, "Of course. I'm going to start working on the armor layout, let me know if you hit any snags."

"Or me." Trena quickly cut in, her gem colored eyes practically sparking in appreciation of the view.

"No." I glared at her, "Seriously scales.. come on, have to talk to you about something."

Her eyes rolled, but she followed me as I headed to one of the console stations on the outskirts of the garage. Dropping into the nearest chair, I brought up a quiet privacy screen, drumming my fingers as the thin sound-proofed walls rose from the floor.

"Glad to see we're still riding the same wave." her smirk was back in full force as she settled into her own chair. "I was worried you'd have missed that."

"Miss that you perfectly set us up to hack into their vid cams?" My own lips twitched slightly, a bit of guilt over what we were about to do the only thing that stopped my smile from growing to match hers. "I'm pretty sure that their systems should still have my patch in place.. ah, there it is. Sending the command.. and we have video."

The console lit up with three separate helmet cameras, all showing different views of the same scene. Three Batarians and an Asari in a high speed air car, still  _en route_ to their destination.

I flicked the mute, not trusting the very limited screens given how many people were still moving about in the garage. "So.. Chacksin's making a move then."

She grunted, then winced as she lifted her left leg up to rest it on another chair. "Can't decide if he's a fuck all idiot or just a bloody smart tit for this either."

"Yeah. Trying to work that out too." I admitted, frowning at nothing in particular.

On the surface, attacking the only force on planet that would realistically attack him made perfect sense. After all, the Eclipse despite Sederis's rage at what he'd done, was likely a temporary thing. Especially if he could find something new to distract the psycopath. And since Xerol, now Nyn's, security force was down to two full time members, with another two dozen or so still bedridden or in hospitals, I-Sec was really all he had to worry about.

But I-Sec was hardly you're run of the mill cops either. They were all Asari for one, which meant biotics and decades to centuries of experience. In terms of armaments, they were more like an honest military force than anything else. Oh, and there were bloody thousands of them on planet. The few hundred people he had with, well trained or not, could never be expected to really make much of a dent.

"It's got to be a distraction." I muttered, trying to work through the logic.

She might have been partially disabled, sex deprived, and a bit hooked on her new smoking vice, but there was still nothing wrong with her mind. "Maybe. What other things could that asshole gain from this? Besides clearing out a lot of deadweight."

"All of his deadweight." My good arm waved vaguely. "I mean, fuck. I've seen Khar'Shan Minor's headquarters. It's a goddess damned fortress. And the River District's is even larger, and he's hit them both."

"Precinct houses are tough shells to crack too." For once she didn't pull out her pipe, instead rubbing at her temples irritably as she thought. "Best case he had two hundred new, well trained fuckers with him, and a few thousand gang chaff left over. He's got to have committed most of his good troops on this, how many could he have left?"

"And he can't commit all of the True Sons." I pointed out, watching as the screen showed the air beginning a long dive. "Most of them are still on the run or busy dying. So what the hell is he up to?"

"I don't know ape." She growled, frowning as I-Sec's local headquarters came into view. Much of the stone and metal structure was burning, but there was still plenty of tracer fire and an almost continues blur around the upper levels were Asari were likely holding biotic barriers in place. "But I doubt we'll like it."

"Hence why we need to work it out." I winced as something ricocheted off the aircar's front window. Marn, who was driving, didn't waste any time in whipping the car into a hard turn, rocketing over the battle at the base of the structure before slamming to a quick landing on the roof. All four of them were out of the car within moments of her killing the engine, and my eyes naturally slid to Nyn's viewpoint as she followed the pointed directions from an I-Sec sniper.

"Could he be after something?"

"Nyn." I shrugged. "I mean, he wants her for whatever the fuck they're planning, but that's personal. This feels more like honest Blue Sun business. Well, as honest as that kind of thing can be."

" _T'laria, it's Shaaryak."_ Nyn's voice echoed from her omni-tool. " _We've arrived at the headquarters, will contact you again once the situation is under control."_

Trena, proving yet again she was a better liar than me, barely even glanced at the tool. "I hear you Shaaryak. Try not to die, would you? The ape would mope for months."

" _There are times when I genuinely hate you T'laria."_

"Feelings mutual girl." She grunted before cutting the connection. I could only shake my head in exasperation as she shifted, resting her chin on her hand. "Turn the damn volume up ape."

"And let everyone hear? And seriously, could you please stop antagonizing each other?"

"So do it fucking quietly. And it's not like I was even bloody trying that time."

Shaking my head, I did so, flicking the mute off but lowering it down so that we could just barely hear it.

"- _to the lower floors."_ An I-Sec officer had met them at the doorway, and was talking as they flew down the stairs. " _Spectre Vasir is holding the main doors, while the Captain is drecting the defense from her offices."_

Aethyta grunted. " _How many people does the Spectre have?"_

 _"Her entire team, plus a full squad of our people."_ The Asari led them out at the entryway marking the second floor. " _We've killed at least fifty of them so far with minimal losses, but we've lost contact with at least two precinct houses. The River District just reported in, their Captain confirmed they'd driven them off entirely."_

 _"Good."_ The Matriarch accelerated a bit, her body beginning to glow. " _You're with us now girl. Keep them off my goddess damned flanks."_

 _"Understood."_ Nyn's helmet lowered as she double-checked both of her pistols before returning her long-ranged model to her belt.

The entry hall turned out to be far larger, and grander, than the mansion's, to my complete lack of surprise. Also unlike the mansion, it had been designed logically in terms of defense. Instead of massive columns that looked pretty but also gave opponents plenty of cover, it was a wide open space with low built fountains and gardens that were completely useless for stopping bullets. And from the firing line of Asari blasting away from second floor balconies, with more tracers from secured positions below, they were doing a damned good job of turning the place into a complete kill zone.

Of course, there wouldn't have been any mercs alive if Chacksin hadn't had at least some brains in his head. Four aircars looked like they had simply smashed their way through the massive doors, skidding along the floor to provide make-shift cover and barricades for his people to hide behind. Two were on fire, but they'd apparently been armored up because there were still enemies behind them, snapping off their own shots in reply.

Or they had been, until Aethyta arrived.

Trena, when she'd been healthy, could throw chairs and crates fast enough to shatter people's bodies, armor or no. Ghai couldn't have managed that, her strength being more in warpfire and shockwaves that simply ripped people apart. And Tela Vasir.. she'd been like the energizer bunny on crack, so fast that you could barely keep track of her as she used biotic charges to practically fly.

Aethyta reminded me that while all of them were impressive in their own ways, she was a goddess damned Matriarch, and she wouldn't be shown up by anyone.

Her biotic aura wasn't a glimmer, it was more of a localized storm, thick bands of energy rolling down from her neck around her arms as she disdainfully waved both of her arms out. In response, two of the cars were flung as if kicked by some titan, slamming straight through the mercs hiding behind them. And neither vehicle stopped at the outer walls, simply smashing even larger holes into the walls before sailing into the courtyard.

She was hardly done either. Even as the gunfire stuttered at that display, she'd bloody  _jumped_  off the ledge, throwing warpfire as she did. Two mercs died screaming even as Nynsi and her companions belatedly opened fire, trying to focus on the edges of the fight. But I could still see the Matriarch in the edges of their sight. She'd actually drawn her gun, the short barreled rifle tearing apart three mercs inside of a single long roar of fire. What few shots the Blue Suns were managing in reply were rebounding off of her barriers without seeming to bother her.

"By Athame.." Trena's voice was uncharacteristically hushed. "Never seen her go all out like this.."

"Yeah.. wait." My eyes narrowed as a blur appeared.

If Aethyta had been enough to hold off the army trying to fight its way in, Aethyta  _and_ Tela Vasir were like you'd just dropped a pair of player characters into a game. Even to me it was obvious that they'd fought together before. The Spectre fell instantly into an escort roll, flickering back and forth as she took over keeping the Matriarch's flanks clear, leaving Aethyta free to start hammering the Blue Suns who were now frantically trying to get the hell away from her as they screamed for heavy weapons to be brought up.

I-Sec was making that as hard as they could, officers snapping out orders as the rank and file started racing after the pair. Nyn, apparently agreeing that if the Blue Suns were going to rally it would occur outdoors, snapped out for Marn and Chen to follow her, the I-Sec agent belatedly moving to follow.

Someone behind us cleared their throat, and I damn near jumped out of my chair.

"God dammit!" I slapped the mute button and whipped around, glaring at the suddenly terrified Erana.

"Oh goddess, I'm so sorry master, I d-didnt' know you were busy and-"

"Enough girl," Trena, apparently having been as engrossed as I had been, cut her off as she settled back into her chair. "It's fine. What do you need?"

"Um.." She had to tear her eyes off the screen, where the three views had each made it to the ground floor. Which gave an even better view of a small Asari army simply tearing apart the mercs who were desperately trying to flee. "Ah... yes. My sister needs to talk to Miss T'laria about the cooling system."

My eyes narrowed. "Only the cooling system?"

The young maiden had the good grace to blush, her blue skin darkening to navy. "I.. I think so sir."

I sighed, very much doubting that. "Go on scales."

"Let me know if any interesting shit happens." She heaved herself up with her cane, "Come on girl, let's go see what your delectable sibling wants."

If anything that just made her blush worse, but she jerked a nod and quickly scampered alongside.

I watched them go and sighed as my paranoia ramped up yet again.  _Need more security checks.. particularly on her and her sister. Don't want to think that either of them could be an issue, but we've gotten burned so many damn times now.._

Making the mental memo to talk with Nyn about it, I cut out Marn and Chen's cameras and put the links back into lock-down before settling back to keep watching Nyn's viewpoint. Idly, I also flicked open another panel, bringing up the armor data so I could at least get some work done as I watched.

There wasn't much to see at this point. Most of the Blue Suns and their gang members were either dead or gone, leaving only the wounded for I-Sec to round up.

" _Aethyta. Spectre Vasir."_ She sounded out of breath once I brought the volume back up, probably from trying to keep up with them. " _That was.. impressive."_

Aethyta rolled a shoulder as if it was nothing, but I could see the muscles on her neck straining as she struggled not to pant. More than that, her blue skin was gleaming with sweat. Vasir seemed far more relaxed, as if she could go another few rounds without any issues.

 _Out of shape? Just old? Both?_ My mouth twisted down a bit, not liking the sight at all. Sure she'd been hell on Illium for a while, but apparently her massive power had very definite limits.

" _All in a days work girl."_ Vasir chuckled, " _You should have seen us a few centuries back, when this old fish was putting me through Spectre training. Now those were some fights."_

For once Aethyta didn't seem to mind the monicker, drily chuckling at the memories. " _I still have some scars from that damned Turian."_

_"You're not the only one."_

" _Hey, Vasir. You moved too goddamned fast for us to keep up. Not all of us can bloody launch themselves around like cannonballs."_

I hadn't though many things could surprise me anymore, but my heart sputtered to a stop for a long moment before lurching into motion again at the rough voice. Nyn's vision turned to take in Vasir's team, but the human in the most battered, most mismatched armor had removed his helmet, revealing familiar scarred features above a smoldering cigar.

" _Come now Massani, I hardly was moving that quickly."_

He grunted, shaking his head. " _What's with the squints? And you got any prisoners for me to deal with?"_

Nynsi might have made a low growl of irritation, and I didn't doubt that she was tempted to shoot the mercenary right there and then.

 _"This is Nynsi Shaaryak, estranged daughter to our target. She and her people are assisting us."_ Massani shrugged slightly at Vasir's explanation, as if he didn't really give a fuck. Which he probably didn't. " _And As if I would forget your payment. My sister is detailing them by rank, go track her down and you can question them about your former compatriot's location to your heart's content."_

 _"Let's just hope they don't piss themselves this time."_ Without another word he spun on his heel and stomped off, smoke trailing behind him.

" _You'll have to forgive Massani."_ One of the commandos shrugged, fiddling with her omni-tool. " _He's a bit of an ass, even for a human. Did you know you're transmitting data by the way?"_

I winced as my day went from fucked up thanks to Zaeed Massani's presence, to utterly shit at the simple comment.

Aethyta whipped her head around. " _Who is?"_

_"Her."_

Nynsi let out a very long, very low growl. " _T'laria. Cieran. I know you can hear me."_

Grimacing, I flicked my communicator open. "Good afternoon Tarath'shan, I'm glad to-"

" _Don't try to placate me Harath'krem! What in the Pillars name are you doing?"_

"Working on my armor schematics and watching Aethyta kick ass and take names." The Matriarch's lips twitched, and Chen barked out a laugh. At least, until Nyn whipped around. Even through her helmet her glare was apparently strong enough to make his mouth snap shut.

" _And did I give you permission to hack my helmet feed?"_

"You didn't say not to. Plus, I didn't hack it. I just didn't remove the software Xerol had me and Trena put in so that he could view the operations."

There was a very low sound of pure displeasure.  _"That was supposed to have been removed week ago."_

"And it mostly was."

" _Mostly?"_

"I might have left yours.. and the squad leaders. And Chen's." I admitted. "And mine."

There was a long pause. " _You patched the feed into T'laria's room, didn't you? That's how she always knew what happened during the raids."_

 _"Lay off him a bit girl,"_ Aethyta gulped down a cup of water that an I-Sec officer had handed her, " _We've got bigger problems right now. Like what in the deeps the purpose of this was."_

_"Very well.. Cieran, cut off the transmission and remove the damned software. Now."_

I winced at her irritable tones. "Yes Tarath'shan."

" _We will be returning to the mansion shortly."_ She cut the comms before I could say anything else, and even went so far as to remove her helmet and keep it pointing straight at the ground.

Sighing, I cut the feed and transmitted the deconstruct function, sending her omni-tool a ping as soon as the video cut out.

 _Great going Cieran. Well, could be worse I suppose. Not sure how, but it could be. Well, scratch that. It could be Shepard instead of Zaeed._ I hurriedly knocked on some nearby wood, not wanting to anger the universe more than I apparently already had.  _And Zaeed.._

Zaeed Massani was here. Not that surprising in hindsight, especially since Vasir seemed to know about his background. If you were going up against the Blue Suns, there probably wasn't a more qualified mercenary in the galaxy to help you understand how they fought, thought, and how to anticipate what they were up to in general. Still, now it meant I had to be even more cautious about doing something stupid. I still was iffy on the entire idea of making massive changes to the canon, and getting him, or Aethyta, or Spectre Vasir killed because I did something wasn't a good one.

 _Push Zaeed out for now. He's with Vasir, so you probably won't even interact with him. Hell, push Nyn's anger aside for now. What's important is what the hell Chacksin was up to. He obviously didn't use the attacks as a distraction to attack us here. And if he'd launched another attack somewhere else important we'd have heard by now._ I wiped irritably at my forehead with my good hand.  _So what the hell was he up to?_

I liked to think that I'd gotten pretty good at analyzing things like this, but this one was eluding me entirely.

_It just makes no god damned sense!_

Bringing up the news feeds, I spent a good half hour getting a full summary of what had happened, where he'd hit, the status of the raids.. everything I could grab from the public sources. None of it helped. He'd hit two headquarters, seven precinct houses, and had smaller groups of True Sons trying to ambush routine patrols all over the continent. By and large, they'd gotten their asses handed to them. He had to have lost more than half, maybe even way more than that, of his people in the attacks. And that included his new, well trained, personal troops.

_Someone as smart as we think he his would have known these were all suicide missions. He took two precinct houses, and promptly got evicted the moment more officers arrived._

I cut the news channels, not wanting to hear how several reporters were openly speculating that this might cause the Republic to finally send in the Justicars, or for the Council to even step in and dispatch another Spectre agent or two.

_Which would hardly improve his situation. That would just shift him from probable death to guaranteed death._

So what the hell was he up to? A distraction was the logical answer, but what the hell was so important he'd sacrifice the bulk of his forces for? The only thing we knew he was after for sure was Nyn. Now that Sederis was aware of their plans, their attempts to disrupt the Eclipse in that manner were out the window. And the True Sons as a fighting force were effectively done, and had been even before he'd arrived.

_And he obviously didn't make a move to attack her. Or he'd have hit the mansion again._

I kept going in circles in my head, trying to puzzle out what had happened. All I managed to realize was that I was getting very annoyed and frustrated, and absolutely no closer to figuring out what the hell was going on on this goddess-damned planet now.

 _"_ Cieran."

Blinking, I glanced behind me, finding Nyn still in her armor and pretty much glaring at me. I hadn't even heard her aircar arrive.

Her glare faded a bit at my expression, even if her upper eyes remained a bit tight. "Cieran? What is it?"

I turned back to the various screens with my data with a scowl. "I'm trying to figure out what the hell he was up to and I'm not getting anywhere. It doesn't make any fucking sense!"

She moved closer, resting a hand on my shoulder and chuckling quietly. "You wanted to have something to give me to make me less angry, didn't you?"

My skin might have pinked a bit. "Maybe. But still. This is.. everyone tells me I'm good at this, but I can't figure this fucking shit out."

There was a quiet sigh. "Promise me that you won't hack my helmet cameras again just to provide your friend with entertainment?"

"I promise Nyn." She squeezed my shoulder gently. "Anything happen after I cut the feed?"

"Nothing of importance. Aethyta will be staying here to provide us with extra protection while Vasir stays with her sister. Both her  _mercenary,_ " and it was very clear that she didn't care much for Zaeed, "and I-Sec interrogators are already working on the prisoners in the hopes of answers."

"Well let's hope they have better luck than I do." I snapped off the screens, unable to think on it anymore. "Was Trena out by the armor?"

Her lower eyes narrowed. "T'Laria? She was. I've already  _spoken_ with her about this incident."

I leaned back a bit, resting my head against her armored side. "I don't suppose if I make you dinner that will help?"

"It may.. or may not. But I would hardly discourage you from making the attempt."

"Dinner it is then."  _And a few glorious hours of not thinking about this shit anymore.._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> know, Chapter names on the face cards isn't exactly unique, but I thought it worked in this situation. So you all know the names of chapters 9 and 10 now, and presumably 11.
> 
> This chapter was a bit slower, but we still got to see Aethyta kicking some ass and for Trena and Cieran to keep their banter going for one more chapter. More serious action will start occurring in the next one as bits and pieces of what Chacksin is up to starts becoming clearer. And yes, Zaeed has finally made his appearance. A few chapters later than originally intended, but better late than never. And yes, again, he's not exactly going to be easy going when it comes to Batarians (very few humans will be, but he at least has more reason than most).
> 
> As far as the remaining story goes, here's the general plan. Once Chapter 12 is posted, that will be the main 'end' to AR:A. After that I'll be doing a quick edit and overhaul of the story to correct typos and minor issues. Once I've gotten it cleaned up and updated, I'll be posting the Epilogue which will work as a bridge to AR:T. There will p


	32. The Queen

Two days later, and my armor looked even more like a mess than it had ever managed before we'd literally had to tear it down and build it back up, even it was mostly intact now. Before, it had managed to be at least a uniform dull gray color. Now there was dull gray, Blue Sun blue, and even some pieces that we'd had to chip some rust off of after they'd hauled it from the nearest scrapyard. The harsh angles of the exoskeleton's plates conflicted badly with the random curves from Yi'ren's armor, but the bulges had actually worked out in providing a bit of extra space to cram in more back-up systems and reinforcements.

In short, it had gone from plain but functional, to obviously-cobbled-together-from-a-scrapyard and we-will-pray-to-Athame-that-it-works.

"Well. She's almost ready boss." Illyan grunted, reaching out to give the re-attached left arm a good shake.

I nodded, tilting my head a bit to the left in respect. "Yeah. Right on schedule. You and your people did good work."

"Thanks boss." I didn't miss the way she eyed Trena's posterior as she limped past us to inspect the engine mounting herself. "How's the arm?"

"Not bad. Not as good as I'd like, but not bad." My eyes slid down to glance at my arm. Whatever the medic had shot me up with when she'd shoved my two joints back into place was apparently doing a very good job at keeping my muscles from doing anything stupid. It honestly felt fine, if a bit stiff from being stuck in the same position for days, and I was very eager to tomorrow to come so that I could yank the stupid thing off. "I'll be good to run the tests tomorrow morning."

"Good. Hate for all this to be a waste of time."

"Yeah, have to agree there." I crossed my arms, waiting for Trena to finish her overview. "How's your sister doing?"

Illyan glanced over to where Erana and Ferai were packing up some of the tools they'd been using. "Still has no idea how to flirt properly, what else is new. You thought about my request?"

"I'm thinking about it." I admitted. "You've done a hell of a job."

Her lips curled slightly. "You're waiting on a background check, aren't you?"

My own smile was grim. "The last person I let work on my armor put in a backdoor hack that let him lock up the entire suit while I was in it. I had nightmares for nearly a month after, so yeah, I'm waiting for Aethyta to clear all of you."

"Can't blame you boss."

"Thanks." I shook my head slightly, fighting off bad memories. "I'll have answer later this week, but Nyn's all for it if things check out."

"Sure you should be telling me this? I mean, since you're checking on us."

I waved a hand. "You and your sister are fine. Your mother runs a restaurant chain, thinks you're both lazy and hates your choice in jobs. But you've been loyal to the Shaaryaks for twenty years and you're making plenty of money running the scrapyard. Erana is what she is. Shy, bashful, and painfully young. Which is annoying considering she's twice my age."

"Yeah, well." The tall Asari lowered her voice a bit. "I wanted to keep her close. Some of her friends went Eclipse, tried to get her to join. Wasn't about to let her join those tides cursed psychopaths."

I grunted quietly, "Good choice there. If we had people I'd see about giving you a guard or something, but.."

"I can watch after her boss, but quarters here at the mansion would be nice all the same."

"I'll see what I can do." And I meant it. The two Asari plus the Batarian trio had done even better than my best hopes. Apparently years of breaking down cars and other vehicles in the district's major junkyard had made them more than qualified to rapidly disassemble and reassemble things. And they'd even put in upgrades I hadn't thought we'd have time to even look at, or thought of.

_And when my armor gets shot to shit again, which seems to happen every other fucking month, it would be nice to have a team ready to throw it back together. Way faster than just me trying to do it._

"They did good work back here ape." Trena agreed with my assessment as she finished her own. "Plus these exterior supports on the mount will give you more space to haul shit around if you have to."

"Yeah. Did you run the barrier check this morning?"

Her eyes rolled as she limped towards us, "No, Illyan and I were too busy going at it on your couch. Of course I bloody ran the checks ape."

Illyan very pointedly looked at nothing, but her lips trembled as she fought back a grin, probably from the mental image.

I had to resist the urge to rub at my forehead... and then did it anyways. "Scales just... you know what, I don't even care anymore. Either go to the hospital and find a way to crawl into Ghai's bed or you and Illyan can go find a closet or something. Just work it out."

"Can't I have them both?"

The tall Asari did manage a light blush this time while I was busy groaning. "Scales.."

She let out a quiet chuckle, "By the deeps you're easy ape. And you know I don't have time for sex, conference room in ten."

"Illyan.." I shook my head slowly, "Please get everything setup for a test run tomorrow morning. Movement, targets, the works."

"Sure boss." She quickly excused herself, but I didn't miss the way her hips had a bit of extra movement to them. And Trena's eyes were pretty much glued to that particular part of her anatomy until she'd drifted behind the armor.

"Mmmm.. I do have to talk to Ghai about her."

"I'd rather you talked with me about what this is about." I grumbled, turning away and heading towards the exit. "And seriously. Find a prostitute or something. You've only had one thing on your mind for the last three days."

If she'd had eyebrows one of them would have arched, "Athame's azure you're testy today. Shaaryak throw you out of her bed?"

"No." I glared at nothing in particular as we moved through the doorways. "Still having problems on my analysis."

There was a low groan. "Seriously ape? I thought she told you to not bother with that shit."

"Yeah, well, I have been." My right hand waved irritably. "He launches an all out attack on I-Sec, loses more than four hundred people across the continent, including over a hundred of his well trained Batarian loyalists. Then nothing. Two fucking days of silence, just what's left of the True Sons getting massacred by I-Sec in retaliation."

"Not hearing anything to worry about so far." Her can thumped a bit to reinforce her Asari style shrug. "Maybe he was just clearing out some useless chaff. Not like he can support having that many troops on Illium right now."

I scowled. "He snuck them on planet, stands to reason he could have gotten them off. He's distracting us for a goddess damned reason Scales and it's annoying the fuck out of me."

"Ape," she reached up to clap my shoulder, and reminded me that she'd been working out enough to get some of her old strength back, "Not everything is some complicated plot. Even when assholes like Chacksin are involved, most shit is simple. Odds are he's just not used to command so many bloody people and overreached."

"Scales.." I shook my head, resisting the urge to brush my long hair out of my face as it fell there. "We're talking about the guy who came up with their plan to begin with. Someone who works out how to smuggle slaves onto Illium, get them fit and registered as indentured servants, co-opts a planet-wide gang to sell them, and then train up his own elite company all ready for the Eclipse and I-Sec to go to war.."

It was her turn to grumble, shaking her head. "I fucking hate it when you make sense."

"Yeah. Me too. I don't suppose you've got anything?"

"No." She scowled, cane striking the ground harder as we drifted past lower caste laborers cleaning up the halls. "And they didn't pick up any tracking devices or any shit like that?"

"Car is clean. Armor is clean. Guns are clean. Mail is clean." I flicked my hand against the conference room's door, finding it still empty and barely lit. Not bothering to turn the lights up, I stood aside to let her enter, still talking as I did. "His plan with the Eclipse is fucked, that just leaves Nyn right?"

"Right." She lowered herself into a chair as soon as she was close enough, and I pretended not to notice her groan of relief at being able to sit down. "And there's nothing fucking logical or smart about what he did if Shaaryak was his goal."

"Right." I echoed, finding my own chair next to where Nyn would end up sitting at the head of the table. "Which leaves us floundering in the bloody dark."

Her eyes slowly narrowed, and I felt myself frowning. "Ape, what if we're over-thinking this?"

"What do you mean?"

"What's the Blue Suns goal here? Not Chacksin's. Or the True Son's. His bosses, the triumvirate. What do they want?"

I shrugged, trying to see where she was going with this. "Well, all three want the Eclipse fucked up, preferably with Sederis dead. Dom'serah wants Nynsi abducted and married off so that he and the Hegemony can get access to the family's fortunes and businesses."

She waved a hand irritably, "Forget Shaaryak. That's personal at this point. Yi'ren is dead. The True Sons are fucked. There's not bloody way that those two humans would not notice that much shit going down, right?"

"Right... so?"

"Ape, they don't give a shit about the Batarians or the Hegemony. They started all this shit because of I-Sec and the Eclipse, to make the two of them at each others throats so they'd tear them out."

I blinked slowly, let that process, then swore violently. "God motherfucking.. athame's fucking ass!"

My hands slammed on the table as I shoved my chair out, rising and pacing furiously. "So fucking fixated on thinking that we were his bloody target I fucking didn't even think he'd still be after the Eclipse!"

She shook her head, "Never easy to admit we aren't the center of the galaxy ape. I didn't think of it either."

"Fucking should have. Me, not you." I had to resist the urge to punch the walls. "Dammit. That leaves about a million things he could have done. Given Sederis a wergild to calm her down until they came up with a new plan. Infiltrated defensive systems. Fuck, even just getting in touch with her might cause us issues. Wait.."

I twas Trena's turn to frown as I stopped moving, rocking back on my heels as I worked through everything that we knew about Chacksin ul Shaaryak.

"Infiltrators. He's always used infiltrators. The first attack on the mansion, then again on the second, multiple insiders each time. Aethyta. We need Aethyta."

My Asari companion was already pushing herself back to her feet, fumbling for her cane. "Financial records?"

"Those. Comm logs. Anything like that. If he's been using the last few days to setup his attack as smoothly as he setup the one on us.."

"He could kill Sederis." Her lips twisted as she moved as quickly as she could after me, "Which I'd normally by all fucking for, but we need that goddess addled bitch alive right now."

"Yeah." Bringing my right arm up, I flicked open my omni-tool with a gesture. A few finger twitches later and I had my communications manager up. "Aethyta, you there?"

The screen flickered before the Matriarch's frowning face appeared. "Kean? I'm coming in for a landing right now, what's so goddess damned important it couldn't wait?"

"We need a full check on anyone you know close to Sederis. Financial data, mesages, families, everything."

There wasn't anything wrong with the Matriarch's head. She frowned for maybe half a second before the expression morphed into a growling snarl. "I must be going senile. That your brain at work?"

"Scales." I admitted, "I missed it too."

"Going to go straight to her head. I'm aborting my approach, tell Shaaryak I'll be in touch as soon as I get the information."

"Right. Need us to do anything?"

"Stay put." She grunted, managing a credible glare through the tiny screen. "And don't try and contact Sederis, or let Shaaryak try. Leave the Eclipse to me."

 _Why would we even bother?_ "Right."

Just because we wanted Sederis alive didn't mean we wanted her to.. well, be alive. If it wasn't for the fact that I was sure the Blue Suns would find a way to turn her death into chaos and basically civil war, I wouldn't have really cared. Screwing with the canon or not, I couldn't really imagine the galaxy not being a better place with her no longer in it.

As soon as she cut the connection, I stopped walking, leaning my good shoulder heavily against the wall as Trena caught up.

"You hear that?"

"Yeah." she grunted, shaking her head. "Any guesses?"

"He's had two and half days to set things up." I tilted my head so that I could rest it on the cool stone. "That's not much time to be careful. But if he knew he didn't have much time.. he might have already made his move. And it isn't as if the Eclipse would tell us either way."

"No, assholes would fucking stay quiet." Her fingers twitched, probably itching to grab her pipe. "But if we can bloody well stop them, that bitch will owe us. Big time."

I snorted, shifting so that it was my back instead of my shoulder leaning on the wall. "Assuming she cares about things like that."

Trena's expression darkened for a very brief moment, her eyes tightening in the corners while her lips thinned. It lasted a fraction of a second, and if I hadn't known her so well or been so standing so close I might have missed it entirely.

_Scales.._

"She pays back her debts. She just has different concepts of slights compared to.. you know, normal people." Gleaming teal eyes flash slightly. "Don't ask Cieran."

I spread my hands. "I don't pry Trena."

She sucked in a slow breath but nodded in silent thanks.

Whatever had happened to her in the past had something to do with the Eclipse, but there was no way I was going to press her on it. It was obviously painful enough that she did her best not to think about it, and I was pretty sure that whatever it was would explain a lot about her behavior and attitude.

_Besides, if she wants to tell me.. she can tell me. Until then I'm not going to bring up painful memories. Fuck knows I've got my own past I'm not exactly being honest about.._

Most days.. I could honestly forget that I wasn't from.. well, here. Between my work, Nyn, and preparing to fight for our lives I was largely able to push down memories of my former life. From time to time it would creep back, usually when something related occurred. I hadn't slept well, despite Nyn's best efforts to tire me out, the day I'd seen Zaeed, memories of the games I'd played with friends haunting my dreams.

For my sanity, that lack of focus was probably a good thing. For my future.. it might have been bad. I had resorted to modifying a tablet, yanking out all of the networking equipment to leave it little more than a storage unit, and securing it with every security lock I could think of. Once it was ready, I'd started to put in notes about what I could still remember about the games. The second game's loyalty missions. What needed to happen for the best events in the third. What side events were important in the second. People who had to survive. Planets to avoid. The timing I thought things happened in.

 _And if you don't.. make it.._ I closed my eyes and bowed my head slightly.

I'd made a will, of sorts. Given that I didn't own all that much, I'd left nearly all of it to Nyn, but the tablet.. would go to Trena. I loved Nyn, but Scales was the first friend I'd made. And honestly, she was less of a target for the people who were after us. If I.. died,  _Fuck that's hard to think about,_ I didn't think Nyn would be long for the world either.

_But Trena could make it. And maybe she and Aethyta could do some good..assuming they believe it._

My musings were thankfully interrupted by Nyn's arrival.

"Cieran? T'laria? Why are you in the halls instead of waiting in the room?" My Tarath'shan slowed as she approached, lowering her own tablet and handing it to Chen who'd been following her.

"Scales might have figured out what Chacksin was up to." I pushed off from the wall with my good arm, eager to be near her, to let her familiar presence push away everything I'd just been thinking about.

She accepted my kiss to her cheek, brushing it through my goatee before turning to Trena. "And?"

Between Trena and I, with most of the swearing being done on her part, we explained what she'd theorized. Chen had started his own mutterings halfway through, and if it weren't for her new status as the Head of the Family, I didn't doubt that she'd have joined in as well.

"-the old fish also says you aren't to contact Sederis."

Nyn barely held back a snort, turning it to a short exhale instead. "Why would I bother? She hasn't replied to any message that I've sent requesting to speak with her. The Pillars could take her if we didn't need the Eclipse to help curtail the True Sons."

"Speaking of," I glanced between her and Chen, "Any word on the corporations?"

The sniper grunted, waving the tablet that my Tarath'shan had handed him. "Cleaned out most of the larger ones, picked up a few hundred recruits. The rest, figure two thousand or so, are being loaded on Republic ships for Thessia. Some kind of treatment camp."

He sounded dismissive about the latter, which made my cheek twitch a bit. Still, I didnt' bother saying anything, and neither did Trena, despite a similar annoyed movement on her own face. Our shared attitudes towards slavery was one that we'd never really be able to get across to him, or even Nynsi. She knew my opinions on it, and respected them enough to never bring the topic up, which I was thankful for.

"Which leaves only a few smaller businesses," Nynsi spoke quickly, smoothly filling the awkward pause before Trena could snap anything at Chen. "Restaurants, stores, brothels, that kind of thing. I-Sec is still tracking down the purchases and forwarding the data to the Eclipse for them to handle."

Trena gave a curt nod. "Good. At least we managed that fucking much."

"Indeed." She threaded an arm around mine, "I suppose our conference to discuss our options has become moot. Perhaps we should retire to the dining room and enjoy a few moments of relaxation before Aethtya acquires our information."

If there was a quick way to make peace with Trena that didn't involve sex, food and drink was a good start. Assuming you were willing to put up with the mess she'd leave behind.

"Were you able to finish the background checks?" I spoke quietly as we moved, Chen flicking through something on his omni-tool while Trena limped along next to us.

Nyn gave a dry chuckle, "The redundant checks my Harath'krem? They all passed with flying colors, and were vetted by Aethyta. Your mechanics may move into the empty quarters in the east wing."

I relaxed slightly, "Thanks. Sorry for being paranoid, but.."

"You don't need to apologize," she leaned over, smoothly brushing her lips on my cheek. "I understand, remember?" That was probably the closest she would come to reminding me that she was the one to hold me when nightmares of paralysis with figures looming overhead struck.

"I do."

Her voice remained light, even if her lower eyes tightened a bit in concern. "How is your armor progressing? Will it be done tomorrow?"

"Assuming everything checks out, it should be."

"If his left arm can move." Trena chimed in, glancing pointedly at my bound limb.

I shifted it a bit defensively. "I'll be fine. I'd already have this thing off if-"

"No."

Chen chuckled without looking up, and Trena cackled openly. I just sighed, but nodded at my Tarath'shan's command all the same.

"Honestly Cieran. You'd have done even more damage to your arm if you had your way." She chided, lips curling a bit at the edges as our companions grew even more amused. "Did I not catch you attempting to remove it this morning?"

"I was trying to cut my stupid hair." I defended, "And I needed both hands!"

"Wait," Chen actually glanced up with all four eyes. "You..  _cut_ that off?"

"Yes?" I turned slightly to frown at him, "How did you think humans kept it short?"

"Honestly I thought it just stopped at some-point." He was apparently having a hard time processing it. "But  _cutting?_ Wouldn't that be like cutting of a Turian's fringe or something?"

"Um.. no? There's no nerves in my hair Chen. Seriously, do you know anything about humans?"

"You only have two eyes." He responded promptly, "And I have to lead them a bit more than Turians, but not as much as Salarians."

"Thank you, Chen." Nyn sighed, "Do I need to make you read articles on human biology?"

"Why would I need that?" There was a chuckle as his lower eyes slid back down to the tablet, "Brains are in the head. Heart is just slightly left of center. All I care about in the end. No offense Kean."

I shook my head, "There are days when you scare the hell out of me Chen."

His teeth showed for a brief moment before he became absorbed in whatever he was reading.

The dining room was, given that it was still an hour before dinner, unsurprisingly empty. While Trena limped to a chair, and Chen draped himself into one across from her, Nynsi and I headed for the kitchens.

"Are we cooking or are we telling someone else to cook for us?"

One of her shoulders rose and fell, "I am paying them quite well you know."

I held my hand up, glancing around the pantry to see what was available. "I wasn't casting judgment, just curious."

"Mm." I didn't think she quite believed me, but her head tilted demurely to the left all the same. "If you could.." there was a sigh as her omni-tool began to flash. "Or perhaps we will not have time. This is Nynsi Shaaryak."

Aethyta's voice echoed from the device. " _It's Aethyta. Get your asses armed and armored, I'm on my way to pick you up."_

At one point in my life, and maybe hers, that might have startled us, or inspired us to ask questions. Instead, we spun, moving quickly to get back into the dining room.

" _I've got confirmed data on two commandos in Sederis's inner circle that just doubled heir yearly income inside of a day."_ There was an irritated sound. " _And records were inserted into several banks to make it seem that I-Sec was behind the payments."_

"Fuck." I shook my head, "Is that it?"

" _Not even. He's layered this pretty goddess damned deep and I don't the time to elaborate. But all of the guards and contacts I think he's corrupted in the last few days, even last few weeks, were seen at Sederis's mansion this morning."_

"He's making his move today." Nynsi growled, "He has to be."

" _Already is girl. I tried to punch a priorty signal through her usual firewalls but got a termination signal. Someons' cut her external feeds. Get your asses moving, Vasir is already on her way."_

Figuring she meant the Spectre, I asked about the other, "And I-Sec?"

" _Is on stand-by. Eclipse territory kid, they won't be welcome until it's clear what in the deeps is happening."_ There was a quiet curse. " _I'm landing in fifteen. Get everyone with a gun ready to go."_

"Understood." Nyn spoke, but it was already into a dead line. Shaking her head, she slammed open the kitchen doors, making both of our friends jump slightly. "T'Laria. Chen. Up. Sound the combat alarms, the Suns are moving on the Eclipse. This might be our window to get Chacksin. How many people do we have?"

"Just got four back from the hospital." Chen locked the tablet and tossed it aside before helping Trena to stand. "That gives us seven, including yourself."

"Have them all in the garage in ten minutes." She snapped, "T'Laria, that includes you."

Trena blinked rapidly. "What are-"

Nyn cut her off with a slash, and actually tipped her head a bit to the left as she spoke. "I don't like you very much, Trena T'laria. But even crippled you're capable of holding a gun. If I'm taking everyone with me to reinforce Aethyta, I need someone to be in charge of security here. That remains you."

"I.. fuck, all right." She sucked in a long breath, "Get someone to my room to help me get into armor."

"Chen, get one of the servants on that. Cieran, you're with me."

I was silent until we got out of the dining room, both of us breaking into jogs as we headed for her chambers.

"Am I going with?"

"Cieran, you're arm." She glanced at me with her upper eyes, "And we don't have your armor tested, or a shuttle pilot."

"Illyan can fly it." I insisted, "And my arm is fine."

Her lips twisted, "The last time you took your armor out without testing-"

"It was hacked by an asshole, yes, I remember. But we've vetted them."

"How do you know this is that important?" she shot back, having to raise her voice over the alarm that begin to resound through the building. "What if it's a false alarm, but your armor malfunctions or you break your arm? I need you healthy!"

"Nyn.." I wanted to stop moving, to grab her and hold onto her, but we couldn't. "I just.. I want to go with you all right? I'm you're Harath'krem, and your lover. Letting you go off to fight while I'm stuck here.. please, Nyn."

Her head lowered slightly as we slowed, her door coming into sight around the corner "This isn't some male pride thing, is it?"

I sucked in a breath and tried not to stumble over some loose masonry. "If you order me, Tarath'shan, I'll stay behind with Trena."

There was a quiet growl as she punched in the access code to open the door. The quiet beep was totally drowned out by the  _gong-gong-gong_ from the ceiling's speakers, which thankfully became quieter once we'd entered.

"Nyn.."

She drew up short of the bedroom door, spun smoothly on her heel, and stalked the short distance to me. Not content to stop, she simply walked straight into me, forcing me to back up until my back was against the nearest wall.

"Cieran," her breath was warm as her dark eyes bored into mine. "If there is the slightest problem with your armor, or your arm cannot take the strain, you are remaining with the shuttle and getting out of it. And if you do something and get killed, I will no longer hold myself to my oath."

My eyes narrowed, "Nyn, no-"

"Are you staying or going?" She cut me off before I could protest, "Those are my terms, Harath'krem."

_If you get yourself killed, she's going to suicide herself to take out her father if there's even the slightest chance of killing him._

_So don't get fucking killed idiot._

I snapped my good arm up behind her neck and grabbed her, feeling a brief rush of arousal as she grunted and pressed closer by reflex. "I'm not dying Nyn. And neither are you."

Something dangerous flashed across her face, and her lips curled before she lunged into a rough kiss. It lasted bare moments before she pulled back, "Then shut up and get that sling off Cieran. We're going hunting."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is a bit more open to interpretation, but the title is intended to refer to Sederis. Either way, feel like it works. There was a few moments of introspection as Cieran reminded himself that he's not actually from this reality, and still isn't' exactly comfortable with that to the point of trying to suppress it entirely. Still, a bit of interesting stuff with Illyan and her sister, and Trena remains Trena.
> 
> So.. the showdown will involve Sederis and the Eclipse, finally making their appearance after lurking in the background for the entire story. For those waiting on Zaeed to have a bigger role, your wish should be granted in the next few chapters.


	33. The King

Illyan grunted in time with Ferai, both of them heaving the massive gun into place beside the armor as I quickly locked my SMG into its new, actual holster on the exoskeleton's right hip. The Visage was already on the armor's back, a necessary backup in case the modifications to Yi'ren's monster weapon failed.

"Will you be able to catch up?" Aethyta's car was idling, along with two others, as Nyn and Marn shepherded what few security staff they had upright into them. The Matriarch eyed the very battered shuttle. "That thing looks like its about to fall apart."

"It'll hold honored Matriarch." Illyan groaned in relief as she settled the massive gun into the cradle waiting for it. "Some of my people have been working on it."

Aethyta grunted, glancing as Chen hauled himself and his carbine into the back seat of her car. "Sure you're up for this Kean?"

I flexed my left arm, and did my best not to wince as the stiff muscles protested the movement. I tried to cover it up with a slightly cocky grin,"Seriously, where's the bitter old Aethyta who gave me cryptic advice and bitterly complained about everything? I'd rather have her than you being all.. concerned."

There was a snort. "I've spent a lot of time trying to figure you out kid. Don't want that to be wasted."

"I'll be fine." Turning away, I regarded the armor for a long moment. "And the armor will work fine."

"And if it doesn't?"

I shifted slightly, and made sure that Nyn was already in her own car. "Then I'll still catch up in the shuttle all the same."

Apparently that meant something, because she nodded before starting to move towards the driver's side door of her car, "See you at the fight kid."

"Right.." Shifting, I closed my eyes for a long moment as the whine of engines rose, wind whipping at my face as five air cars lifted off. By the time I'd opened them they were already drifting out of the garage, almost immediately, kicking off into rapid climbs the second they were clear. "Right.. Illyan, get the shuttle ready."

The tall Asari nodded, her dark eyes serious as she ducked around a toolbox before jogging in the battered vehicles direction.

"Ferai," the Batarian glanced over with his lower eyes, his head tilting left as mine shifted a bit to the right. "Run a final check on the gun please."

"Understood Harath'krem." He shifted, bringing his omni-tool to run the scans.

Blowing out a final breath, I brought up my own wrist computer and brought up the link to the armor. A single flick later had the torso extending, the hydraulic pistons pushing the armor horizontally forwards to give me room to slide in. Wincing slightly as my arm twinged a bit, I moved forwards, planting a foot on the left knee before hauling myself up. Shifting to sit on the left shoulder, I brought my legs up before sliding them into armor and carefully wiggling myself in.

With the added gear, the makeshift armor, and the light armor I was wearing it was even a tighter fit than ever. Getting my left arm into the hole to slide it into place was also rough, and I had to bite back a few Asari curses as muscles twinged.

But a few minutes later I had myself in place, jabbing the familiar chin button to close up the armor before hitting the smaller one beside it to kick the engine into gear.

" _Welcome, Harath'krem."_ Nyn's recorded voice echoed around me, and my lips curled slightly into a smile. She'd been highly amused at the idea, but I'd been able to.. persuade her to record a few lines for me to use with the operating system. Not that she, or anyone else alive in the galaxy, would have understood the reference. " _Engine, online. Sensors, online. Weapons, online. All systems.. nominal."_

At each phrase the appropriate screen flickered to life on my HUD. A few minor systems were a warning yellow, not surprisingly mostly in the left shoulder assembly, but everything critical was a solid green.

"Ferai?"

"Checks out Harath'krem." The Batarian mechanic quickly took several steps backwards to get out of my way, "Ready to connect the weapon."

"Got it."

Stretching out my right arm, I grabbed the new gun, grunting as I quickly had to move my left arm to balance the damn thing. By the armor's standards it wasn't that heavy, but the handle was a bit too far to the rear, and I didn't want to put too much of a strain on it. The last thing I needed was the damn thing breaking before I could even use it. "Cooling feeds, if you would?"

I stayed still as Ferai moved around me, grabbing the coolant lines from the engine mount. Hooking it to clasps on my arms to keep it from flying freely around, he ducked under the limb to plug the feed into the machine gun's rear.

"Connected. System?"

"Green." My arm shifted, making sure there was enough slack that I could move it freely. "See you when we get back."

"Good hunting sir." He tilted his head sharply to the left in respect, backing out of my way as I slowly began to move.

The short trip to the shuttle told me a few things, none of them particularly great, even if it could have been a lot worse.

_Need to adjust the eezo core to compensate for the left leg, it's not quite even on the heel. The ankle actuator must be sticking a bit. Workable. Left arm is stiff too.. not sure if that's just me or the armor, or both._

The shuttle was already idling as I hauled myself in, moving carefully so as not to unbalance myself or the vehicle. Apparently the compensators and eezo core were working fine now, or Illyan was just a better pilot than I was used to, because it didn't even shift.

"Aboard?" She called back.

"Shut the doors and punch it." Shifting to the back of the vehicle, I leaned back against the rear bulkhead, staying as centered as I could.

I'd hardly finished speaking or moving before she did just that, my back pressing into the padding as she pushed the old ship into a rapid take off. And if I'd thought that Aethyta had led the cars out at a steep climb, Illyan practically put us into a purely vertical climb, sending loose tools and debris bouncing as the engines roared behind me.

"Holy fuck woman!" I winced as turbulence bounced the vehicle a bit. "I have adjustments to do!"

"Hold you're fucking shit ape!" A different voice than I expected shot back, "We've got time to make up!"

" _Trena!?_  What the fuck are you doing here!?"

"She needed a copilot you ass. Now shut up, we're leveling off in the upper corridor in ten."

"No Scales!" I snapped back, feeling my eezo core shift the armor around me to adjust for the shuttle's movements. "Nyn is going to fucking kill you!"

"They've evacuating the damn mansion, calm your pale ass down ape." The shuttle's breakneck acceleration slowed down enough for the overworked compensators to ease the strain on my armor, and Trena's familiar face appeared around the cockpit's open hatchway. "It's not like I can fucking follow you into the fight, but I can pick off some people from up here."

"What.." I groaned as I turned, only now noticing the long case strapped the wall. "You brought Yrrich's sniper rifle."

"Of course I bloody did " Her lips pulled back into a snarl. "Xerol was my friend too, remember? And I'm the one walking with a fucking cane for the next decade, and Ghai is still laying in that goddess damned hospital bed."

I could hardly argue with her or contest her points, not after I'd bulled my way onto the mission. "You know Nyn is going to kill you right?"

"Hey, she put me in command of the mansion's defenses. I judged it to be unfucking defensible and ordered an evacuation. And hey, lucky me, this shuttle happened to be available to get me out of there."

 _Oh yeah, like Nyn's going to accept that as an excuse._ For a long moment I wished that I could rub my temples with my hands. "Just.. stay alive, all right? And don't say anything on the airwaves if you can help it."

"Yeah, yeah." Her head vanished as she turned away, "I'll try and not be a distraction, but I'm still killing those assholes. We're a few minutes from the aircars, figure thirty minutes to Nos Astra."

I grunted, bringing my left arm up to better see the built-in omni-tool. "That's enough time for a few tweaks. Where's Sederis's palace?"

"Outskirts on the Oceanside." Trena replied, apparently from memory. "Normally we'd be challenged before we even get close, but just had an alarm go out on I-Sec's frequency, lot of gunfire in her compound."

My fingers twisted inside the waldo units within the exoskeleton's arms, the metallic digits shifting in response to manipulate my eezo controls. "Is the Eclipse moving?"

There was a long pause, long enough for her to flick through several channels. "Not much. Looks like most of them are waiting to see if she gets offed. And even a few rumors already going around that I-Sec is behind all this."

Illyan sounded disbelieving, "How could they already be blaming them?"

I snorted, "Bet you five hundred credits most of the money to pay off whatever insiders he bought came from I-Sec, and that he's already got rumor mills churning."

In hindsight, and having more time to think about it, it felt obvious. The attacks on I-Sec hadn't been one distraction, they'd been two. First, by hitting them as hard as he did, he kept I-Sec's attention on defending itself instead of on trying to figure out just what he was up to. Throwing a few hundred people at a pair of city headquarters had definitely helped there. And by doing that, he could have accomplished a second goal; taking over several small, far less defended precinct houses with easy access to I-Sec's computer systems. Most importantly, their financial ones.

"How did we fucking miss that?" Trena sounded disgusted, "Easiest way to lay the blame on I-Sec and start the goddess damned war they want so much, make bloody sure the paper trail of money leads right to them."

"Like you said scales, got too wrapped up thinking we were the center of the fucking universe." I shook my head at our blindness before trying to focus on survival, which was far more important than throwing blame right now. "Odds on the Eclipse helping us?

"Shitty to none."

"Not surprising." Illyan's hand became visible as she waved it, "Hard to imagine anyone rushing to her defense. Then again, we are..."

"No." Scale's voice was hard, "We don't give a fuck about that bitch, girl. We're after Chacksin."

"Oh..right, sorry boss."

The shuttle lapsed into silence, broken only by Illyan connecting to Aethyta to confirm that we had caught up with them. Given that no one had any idea what to expect once we got near the target, she didn't even bother giving us orders beyond staying up until she identified a place to land.

Once I'd gotten my settings tweaked a bit, and hoping that no other minor bugs would cause problems in combat, I linked into the news channels and did my own surfing. There wasn't much to see. A few Nos Astra locals were questioning what might be going on in the area, but were largely more annoyed about the traffic problems that it was causing. Which at least let us know when were were getting close, Illyan cursing as she had to bounce us a good two hundred meters up to avoid a chaotic traffic stream being routed around the Eclipse's airspace.

Naturally, it didn't take long for the first challenge to reach us.

" _Unknown vehicles you've entered Eclipse airspace which is closed to the public. Either turn back or we'll open fire."_ A young, bored voice of either an Asari or a human woman hardly sounded threatening despite her words.

" _This is Matriarch Aethyta. Try it little girl and I'll rip your spin out and use it as a spear. Put your commander on."_

There was a very long moment of silence before a new voice cut in, " _Matriarch. I don't suppose you're on your way to the founder's mansion?"_

_"And if I am?"_

_"Athame's ass.."_ The words accompanied a very long groan. " _..last word we had was she was having one of her episodes."_

 _"Sounds like somebody lied. The Blue Suns and their followers are probably trying to murder her as we speak."_ Her voice turned a bit harder, " _I don't think I need to remind you how she views inactivity."_

_"No.. Athame's.. goddess take them. I'm sending the alert out now."_

"Well.." I spoke into the quiet that followed. "That's something."

"Let's just hope they don't shoot you all in the back." Trena muttered, staggering into sight as she limped her way into the back. "Fucking Illium Eclipse."

Proving that I can occasionally be smart, I kept my mouth shut and just watched as she fell onto the bench and belted herself in. That bit of safety out of the way, she pried open the long container and pulled out the long barreled weapon.

"Been a while since I used one of these things." She admitted, running her hands along the well-maintained weapon. "You think you can keep us level?"

Illyan sounded amused, "The shuttle, or you and Miss Ghai?"

Trena's grin grew wickedly amused. "Both."

"The shuttle, easily." The tall Asari's voice grew sultry, "And neither of you would be level for very long with me taking care of you."

I just sighed and had to resist the urge to cut off my mics. "Can you both spare me the details, please?"

"Come on ape. Maybe it'll give you and Shaaryak ideas."

My own lips twitched. "We hardly need any help there Scales, especially from someone with only two eyes and no interest in human males."

As intended, she froze for a short moment, then gave a little shudder. "The eyes. And your fur. Ugh.."

"Really? I find them both rather exotic." Illyan called back, "Especially the human women."

Trena tossed a glare up at the cockpit, "You're seriously killing your sex appeal right now. Stop it."

"Yes ma'am."

Chuckling, I flicked my omni-tool off and double checked my new weapon. They heavy, dual-barreled thing was still responding green, and the targeting cursor seemed to be in sync. "How long?"

"Moving to our holding pattern in just a few minutes." There was a short pause, "Aethtya is going into a dive to get a better view."

Blowing out a breath, I closed my eyes.

_This could be it. He might be down there. If we can kill him, our part in this could be over. Xerol would be avenged. The Blue Suns might stop going after Nyn. We could try and put our lives back together. Or together at all in my case._

" _This is Aethyta. There are Suns and Sons on the ground, they've secured at least the main entrance."_ There was a long pause. " _Vasir is on her way, but she's still ten minutes out. Kean, you and I are going to be the leads. Shaaryak, Marn, split your Batarians into two squads and cover our flanks. One of you will have to hold the entrance hall while we go hunting."_

_"Marn, that will be you. Take Chen and our best shots. Have them clear the grounds while you keep the hall open."_

_"Yes ma'am."_ Marn's gravelly voice was even, " _Your way out will be clear."_

" _Shuttle pilot, soon as you've got the angle hit the dive and drop him right at the front steps. I'll be right behind you."_

"Yes, honored Matriarch." There was a long exhale that I could hear even in the back of the shuttle, "Brace yourselves back there, diving in five, four, three, two.. now!"

I had a few long moments to wonder where the hell she'd learn to fly. Even with my armor braced and my element zero core directing my mass to best keep me in place, my stomach fell out as the shuttle roared almost straight down. I'd been shot at, nearly blown up, stared down by furious Asari Matriarchs, but I can honestly scared I was more terrified in that powered fall than in any of those instances. Then, I could at least pretend I could do something about my fate. Here? I was entirely at the mercy of the skills of an Asari I barely knew.

_In a shuttle we've barely had the time to work on!_

_Shut up Cieran! Just shut up and hold on!_

What felt like an eternity later found my engine mount slamming against the back wall as the shuttle was kicked into suddenly level flight, the lights flickering as abused metal screamed in protest. Something started sparking from a panel, and Illyan cursed even as we remained airborne.

"Left side!"

I'd hardly begun to turn before the hatch had started to slide back and out, Trena scrambling to get to the other side of the shuttle and get set up. I lumbered across the shuttle, feeling it wobble uncertainty as I moved, raising my new gun as the mansion's grounds came into view.

Mansion hardly covered it. Xerol had had a mansion. Sederis had a fucking  _palace_ that would have made the Czar's weep with envy. Of course, I didn't have much time to admire the scenery porn, because hesitant gunfire was already pinging off the shuttle's walls.

A good half a dozen mercs had thrown themselves to the ground at our arrival, and while some were scrambling to get up, a few were smarter and had simply started shooting from their prone positions.

_Here we go._

Bringing the weapon up I settled the targeter over a Turian trying to bring his carbine to bear, and gently squeezed the trigger. My left hand tightened by reflex as the weapon bucked, barely keeping it on target as the deep  _thud-thud-thud_  made Trena flinch.

She might have flinched from the noise, but the Blue Sun I'd marked.. the first two shots hit his shields and actually accelerated his rise.. until the next several shots simply tore him apart.

_Woah.._

Quickly cutting off the fire, I swung it around and started firing short bursts at everyone else in sight. A Batarian died as messily as his companion before they realized that they were in over their heads. I got another Turian as he turned to run, his body collapsing to the grass as he screamed, grabbing at the stumps that were left of his legs.

"Exiting shuttle," I flicked my radio on, and lumbered forwards to do as I said, "You down Aethyta?"

" _Pulling up behind the shuttle now._ "

The shuttle wobbled slightly as I stepped free, my feet impacting the ground a few feet beneath me. I almost staggered, straightening my back as quickly as I could and trying to keep my weight on my right side as several actuators in the left began flashing yellow in warning.  _Son of a bitch!_

Nothing gave out entirely, but I was going to have to be very careful about that leg. And the barrage of fire that started hammering at my shields didn't improve my situation much.

"God motherfucking.." I swung the weapon around and cut loose at full auto, "Dammit!"

The difference between the massive weapon and my Visage was like night and day. I'd needed several bursts to put down a well equipped merc with my assault rifle. Yi'ren's weapon dropped that to just several shots each.

Whatever the mercs had been expecting, it apparently hadn't been a counter-attack. Most of them were still slow to respond, as if trying to decide if they should be shooting at me or fleeing. The hesitation let me kill a good six or seven before they really got their shit together.

Frag grenades went off near my feat, rocking me and setting my shields to start flashing in warning as they were drained. A pair of Turians darted around my left, trying to flank me, even as what was left of their squad spread out, trying to make me use up as many shots as possible to fight back.

Which was a good plan, but it didn't take two things into account.

The first was Trena. Illyan had smoothly slid the shuttle back, giving me room to move and Trena room to pick her targets. Her massive rifle let out a crack as one of the flanking Turians dropped, blood spraying as his helmet shattered. His companion staggered at the sight before turning, trying to bring his gun up to return fire. Trena put a round through his chest before he could even try.

" _Fucking thing's already overheated!"_

"Space your shots!" I snapped back, trying to focus on the remaining enemies.

I needn't have bothered, because the second thing turned out to be Aethyta. I'd missed her landing entirely, but I didn't miss her biotic slams that grabbed the mercs, hurled them upwards, and then slammed them into the ground hard enough to break their necks.

A few of them tried to run, but between the three of us none of them made it to the blown open main doors.

"That's all of them." I double checked to my left and right, slowly moving towards the door as I did so. "Illyan, you see any?"

" _Negative.. moving up to circle the grounds, will keep an eye out."_

"Good thinking girl." The Matriarch smoothly moved up to stand beside me, her highly modified rifle in her hands. "Do I need to ask who the gunner is?"

I winced, but kept covering the door. "Probably not."

She shook her head irritably, but didn't say anything else, waiting for the rest of our air cars to glide into smooth landings. Within another minute or two we had a reasonable little strike team assembled, Chen and his people moving slowly to start checking out the remainder of the grounds.

 _It would be a better squad if half of them didn't just get out of the fucking hospital._ I winced at the thought, and resolved to do my best to cover everyone.

Nyn gave me a quick nod, her short barreled pistol already in her hands, "Any contact with the Eclipse?"

"No. Jamming everything, just like at the mansion."

"Are we waiting on Vasir?"

Aethyta didn't bother responding, instead starting forwards at a quick pace. Belatedly the rest of us moved to follow, everyone but Nyn giving my armor a decent amount of space.

Strangely, there wasn't anyone shooting at us the moment we stepped inside.

The outside had been a bit battered, but the entry-hall was uncomfortably familiar. Dead mercs and gangsters had coated the floor in different shades of blood, and what was left of fancy artwork lay in ruins where stray shots had found new things to destroy. I tried not to think about some of the things I had to step on as I moved, even as several of our companions visibly tightened at the sounds.

We could track the battle by the progression of bodies. Here and there, clumps of figures in yellow armor marked where the Eclipse had made a stand. Beyond, a few who'd fallen face-down, shot in the back as they tried to retreat.

Distant gunfire echoed through the halls, impossible to track as the sound bounced its way to us.

"Goddess take them all." Aethyta twisted her head one way and then the other as we neared the end of the long hall. The largest set of doors, opposite the entrance, seemed to lead into a dining area, while several more halls stretched left and right. "Kean, can you fit through these?"

I glanced at the various doors. "That main run to the right, sure. Or the dining room. The rest.. not so much."

"Main run it is. Take the lead kid, I'll match your pace." Her body posture screamed irritation. "Athame knows why they aren't' contesting us right now.."

_Glad to know I'm not the only one worried.._

Shaking my head inside the armored box of my helmet, I set off at my best speed, basically a slog jog. Aethyta easily matched it, loping casually alongside, her biotics glimmering slightly as she held herself at the ready. My rear camera caught everyone else moving, Nynsi smoothly shifting behind me, ready to use my thick armor as cover when the situation called for it. The rest of the squad, seven Batarians, few of whom I knew, spread out as best they could in the narrow space and brought up the rear.

Behind us, Marn and her people were doing their best to shut the side doors, barricading the hall to keep it secured.

 _If we have to pull another fighting retreat_.. I shuddered at the very idea, and flicked my comms open. "Illyan, you there?"

" _Ba-y he-"_ Anything else was cut off in the buzz of low static.

I winced. "So much for that."

Aethyta glanced in a room as we passed, but apparently didn't see anything of note. "Vasir's arrival?"

"Would be nice to know when." I admitted before frowning as more gunfire echoed. I thought it was louder, but given that all I had to go on was my microphones I couldn't get a feed on the direction.  _Memo, setup directional tracking software for the sound intake._

The Matriarch didn't have as hard of a time, "It's ahead of us. Stay alert, all of you."

"Everyone, weapons up." Nynsi moved a bit closer to me, somehow managing to stay within arms length without hitting my legs.

Whatever was happening was around the curve of the hallway ahead, and likely just beyond a makeshift barricade decorated with more bodies of people who had belonged to both sides. It seemed like the attackers had paid a very heavy price to take this set, there was easily twice as many people in blue and gray compared to the yellow on the other side.

_Maybe there won't be all that many left.._

I know that I keep saying that one of these days I'll learn to shut even my mental fucking mouth, so as not to taunt the universe in such a way.

The moment I made the turn around the dresser being used as a make-shift barricade a veritable torrent of fire slammed into an past me. Flinching I fired off a burst from my gun by reflex, stutter-stepping backwards quick enough to nearly send me onto my ass.

I'd barely cleared the hall's opening before a carnage round whipped past where'd just been, blowing a head-sized hole into the wall.

"Motherfucking..!" I shook my head to clear it, trying to push through the surprise and sudden adrenaline rush to remember what I'd seen. "Full squad, twenty meters down the hall."

Aethyta ducked her head out then snapped it back as another blizzard of fire tried to remove it from the rest of her. "Nine of them. Two are ducked into side rooms, probably with shotguns to deal with you kid. Rest are small arms."

"Plan?"

"How's your barriers?"

My eyes snapped over to the read-out. "Full."

"Girl, your aim?"

Nyn quickly swapped her pistols, hefting up the scoped cannon. "Better than yours."

I got the impression Aethyta was grinning under her helmet. "Right up the middle kid, we've got the flankers."

Taking just a short moment to blow out a breath, I nodded to myself and then pushed off my right leg and lumbered up to my top speed.

Behind me Aethyta flung herself into a smooth slide, her rifle coming up as she rose to a kneeling position near the fall wall. Opposite her, Nyn ducked around the corner, keeping her pistol in a steady two-handed grip as the wall of bullets hit me.

Keeping my own weapon up I returned fire as best I could, the massive cannon's dual barrels alternating as the heavy rounds blew apart what cover the mercs had tried to put together. Well, some of the rounds did. Some also knocked one of them on his ass, blew the head off a Salarian, but most missed entirely, roaring over their heads or between them.

I'd made it about a third of the way down before the flankers weapons apparently cooled enough for them to make their move.

"Now!"

On my left and right heavily armored Batarians swung out from behind statuary, leveling shotguns in my direction even as their companions broke off their fire, tearing grenades off their belts and whipping them at me.

Aethyta and Nyn both opened fire at the same time. The Matriarch's custom weapon spat what seemed to be a continuous stream of tracer rounds that tore through her targets shields in under a second before hammering through his armor. Nyn's pistol, hand cannon though it was, didn't quite manage that level of spectaculars, but it kept me alive all the same. Her first round made the Batarian's head snap backwards, his gun flying as he staggered. A second sent sparks flying from the plate that protected his throat, but it was the third that blew through his lower vision slit and ended his life.

I had time to admire their aim before the grenades went off, jostling me against the padding as my barriers were buffeted by the blasts.

_Come on, hold, hold... yesss!_

Grinning as my shields stabilized at twenty percent, I kept moving forwards.

"Pull back! Now!" A Turian shouted in alarm, rising up to run before being grabbed by the Batarian beside him, "He's got backup!"

"No! The Commander said no retreating! We kill that human or die tr-" Honestly I'd been aiming at the Turian, but the round that blew through his comrade's head did make it a bit more dramatic.

The rest of them elected to follow the Turian's lead, bolting out out sight around another corner as my heavy shot chased after them.

"Keep moving kid." Aethyta was already hard on my heels, rapidly catching up. "Sounds like our target is here after all."

 _"Indeed I am you old bitch."_ The familiar voice echoed from the dead Blue Suns's armor. " _And I see you brought both my wayward bitch and her defiler to me. That was kind of you."_

The Matriarch snorted, hardly even glancing at the bodies as she stepped over them. "Killing you will be good anger management for them, better than a few drinks that's for damn sure."

There was a long chuckle that made me want to blast the corpses to get him to shut up, " _Please. I am more than prepared to deal with them, as I am prepared to deal with you. Rest assured, Sederis will soon be dead, as will you. And once you are... this world will burn as it should, the first pillar rising to ascend my people to their proper place."_

"You have no interest in our people." Nynsi snarled, "Exile. Faithless. Damned. You are in this only for your own sake."

" _Do not presume to speak to your betters brat."_ Her father snarled right back, the familiar rage coloring his voice. " _Perhaps I should rip out your tongue to make your palatable to your betrothed."_

Nyn simply put a round through the helmet of the nearest body. "I will rip your eyes out one at a time and show them to you, Chacksin ul Shaaryak, if it is the last thing I do."

" _Good luck little girl. I will enjoy punishing you for your transgressions."_

 _You did_ not  _just go there asshole.._

"And I'll enjoy killing you." I spoke before Nyn could, my voice hard with suppressed fury. "Just like I killed your wife. I burned her alive you know, inside her own armor. Didn't even bother making it fast, just listened to her scream as she cooked."

There was along moment of dead silence before there was an inarticulate scream of rage that cut off into silence as he killed the connection.

"Well.." Aethyta turned, regarding me and Nyn through her helmet, her tone wryly amused. "At least we know he's here. Next time try and avoid setting him into a blood rage though kid."

"There won't be a next time." I growled, gesturing towards the end of the hall. "Let's go hunting, shall we?"

Nyn gave dark chuckle, echoed by several of the squad members, and we set off, heading deeper into the mansion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So. Initially wrote this chapter the day after the last one, but didn't quite like it enough so spent a while editing it to be more than what it used to be. I know I promised Zaeed in this one, sorry, but he's getting delayed until the next chapter. I'm also not sure if the original plan for a 12 chapter arc is still in place, it might go up to 14.. or the Epilogue might turn into a 3 chapter mini-arc after the end, not sure on any of that yet. As I've said before, I'm basically just letting the story write itself at the moment.
> 
> I've also been considering doing a profiles in character series.. featuring bits of either this story or the epilogue done from different characters points of view (still first person). IT would give each character a bit of back-story that Cieran doesn't necessarily know about, and might provide more insight into their personalities. Right now I have concepts for Trena, Nyn, Ghai, and Xerol. If I do go forwards with that idea, not sure if they'd be put in as interludes into this fic or the next.. probably this one.


	34. The Ace

I'd hardly turned around the next corner before rifles began to thunder, sending tracer rounds bouncing off of my barriers.

Shaking my head in disdain at the half a dozen Blue Suns who had taken cover amidst the wreckage of more statuary and furniture, I brought my gun up and fired as I continued to advance. My aim continued to be horrible, but it made them throw themselves down as scattered shots blew wooden desks and cabinets apart, sending wood splinters flying like shrapnel.

While I might not have managed to kill anyone with my opening burst, my companions more than made up for me.

Dark blue, almost violet, biotic energy streaked past, the warpfire burning through a Turian who barely had time to scream. Nyn kept pace behind me, easily snapping shots under and around my arms as she moved, and as far as I could tell she had yet to miss a shot. The squad's fire wasn't as accurate, which was understandable given that they were trying to shoot past me, her, and Aethyta, but a pair of Batarians still collapsed, clutching themselves as blood spurted from their wounds.

"Keep moving," Aethyta ordered, disdainfully executing another merc with her biotics. "Shaaryak, leave two behind us to cover that intersection."

"Tullan. Irak." The two Batarians slowed their pace, firing off a few rounds from their carbines before finding cover where they could stay reasonably safe.

"And get someone on his left side!" Managing to stabilize my aim for just a few seconds was enough to blast the last merc apart, and I tuned out his scream of agony with depressing ease.

"Rane'li, that's you."

The name was enough to make me blink, glancing as a female Batarian stiffly moved up to cover my left side. "What the hell are you doing out of the hospital? You weren't cleared to leave for two more weeks!"

There was a snort. "I thought you said his manners had improved, Lady Shaaryak."

"He's a work in progress." Some of the anger in her voice faded as tinges of amusement drifted in.

Muttering to myself, I kicked aside a cabinet that they'd tipped over, the sturdy thing actually taking the blow and slamming into the wall without shattering. There was a few chuckles and titters of amusement as we pressed onwards.

Aethyta kept us on track before anything could get derailed, "Focus kids. We aren't anywhere close to out of this tides caused mess."

As if to prove her point, static screeched and crackled in my headset before a new voice cut in, " _Whoever you fuckers are that are killing these goddess cursed bitches keep it up."_

Aethyta seemed to sigh before speaking, "Jona. So nice to hear your voice again."

" _Aethyta?"_ There was a short pause before cackling laughter made me wince. It wasn't the rage fueled guffaws that Chacksin, or the mocking tones of Yi'ren, but you could just tell that whoever it was that was laughing wasn't quite all there. " _Oh. Oh this is too good. The fucking Republic spymaster is here, trying to keep_ me  _alive!"_

The Matriarch snorted, "Hardly. You just happen to be where my quarry is."

" _Mmm. Then why tell my hesitant subordinates to get their pathetic asses here, hm?"_ There was another pause, and when she spoke again all of the amusement was gone, buried beneath cold anger. " _He's killed a lot of my people. He's going to suffer for that."_

"Get in line girl. His daughter wants to rip his eyes out one at a time."

" _Such a lovely family. My Salarians just brought my security cameras back online. He's headed for the hanger. Apparently his desire for survival trumps your attempt to piss him off._  " There was a quiet chortle, all the more unnerving for how normal it sounded compared to the cackles she had just uttered. " _I suppose we have a race then. Good luck."_

"Goddess take her." Aethyta snapped her arm up as we all slowed to a halt, her omni-tool flashing. "Where's the hanger girl?"

Illyan's voice echoed almost at once, " _West wing."_

The Matriarch grunted, clearly having a hard time resisting the urge to move faster than my glacial pace. "At least we're heading in the right direction. Have the entrance hall team and the exterior team both move to put suppressing fire into the entrance, support them as you can."

" _Understood."_

 _"_ Kean. Any chance you can go faster?"

I winced. "This is a former construction exoskeleton being weighted down by an over-sized Khar'shan Heavy Industries motor and half again its mass in armor."

One of her feet hit the ground harder than necessary. "Just say no next time. Shaaryak, how many of your people are fit to keep up with me?"

Nynsi 's helmet glanced up as she followed me, "All but Rane'li and Trak."

"We can't let him reach the hanger." There as no compromise in her voice. "They and the kid are going to have to catch up. We'll cut through the servants tunnels."

It was Nyn's turn for one of her feet to hit the ground a bit harder, "You have a blueprint of this place?"

"Now that I have an external connection, yeah. Give me some credit as a spymaster girl." She slowed to a stop, nodding at a section of wall blank but for a truly hideous painting. "Kean, you and your friends keep moving ahead. Forty meters you'll find a left turn that you can fit through, take it."

"Got it." I blew out a breath as she did something with her omni-tool that made the hidden door slide open. There was a glimpse of cleaning supplies on the walls, racks upon racks of them, before I was past. "We'll meet you there."

"I will take it badly if you are late, Harath'krem." Nyn's voice was severe a she hesitated before following the Matriarch, her helmet tracking me as I moved away.

"Then I will not be," I promised, "So long as my Tarath'shan does not find herself delayed."

There was a delicate snort before she turned, heading into the servant's run with her people, "As if these mercenaries could delay us.'

And then she and they were gone, leaving me with Rane'li and a limping male whom I guessed was Trak.

It was the latter who spoke, his voice as gruff as most of his gender's. "By the pillars, do you two always flirt like that?"

"I'm certain I have no idea what you mean."

His head shook as we moved past more artwork that barely deserved the name. "Mental images I would rather not have.."

Rane'li glanced between my back and him. "Don't let the family head hear you say that."

"Hey," he grunted, "I got no problems with you Kean, but that doesn't mean I want to think about you having sex with the boss."

I grunted in reply. "Fair enough. You two stick behind me. Better shot should be on the right, it's harder to get around my gun to get a clear line."

"That's you Trak. My back is still.." her hands made her SMG wobble slightly in explanation.

"We expecting more around the corner?" Trak drifted a bit towards me right as he jogged, clearly favoring his right leg. "Figured most of the would be dead by now."

"There's always more." I muttered, slowing even more as we reached the end of this hall,. It met another one running perpendicular, and yet again the intersection had apparently served as a point for several Eclipse sisters to make a stand. "Stay back until I can see what's around the edge."

It was Rane'li's turn to snort, "Because a nine foot tall suit of armor is subtle."

"Yeah, well the odds of my head getting blown off for checking are way less than yours. So sit your ass behind that desk."

"As you say Harath'krem." There wasn't any sarcasm in her tone whatsoever, but she and Trak still paused a few meters short of the intersection, taking what cover they could as I lumbered on ahead.

Given that she was entirely correct about the subtlety, or total lack-thereof in my armor, I was unsurprised when I leaned around the corner and got peppered by gunfire. I was however, surprised that the gunfire was coming from both freaking directions.

"Fuck!" I jerked back, my right foot crushing a fallen rifle. "Squads at either end of the hall. Eight in the direction we're going, at least six in the other."

My companions exchanged a quick glance that spoke volumes about how welcome that news was.

"The plan?" Trak seemed to grip his rifle a bit tighter. "We aren't exactly up to this kind of fight Kean."

_No shit._

Don't get me wrong, my armor was damned good at what it did. I could probably shrug off most of what the mercs had available and simply smash my way through. But if any of them had heavy weapons, anti-armor grenades, or carnage-modded shotguns and had the sense to hold back until their friends had battered my barriers..  _Never-mind that neither Rane'li or Trak is up for that kind of running fight. Even if they were healthy they aren't in powered armor. So what the fuck do we do here?  
_

"Either of you have grenades?" The both shook their heads. "Fuck. I'm going to suppress fire left as best I can. I need you two to alternate on the other side. Pull back if your barriers get dinged or when I call it!"

I waited for them both to nod before taking a long step forwards, exposing my right side as I swung my gun around. The same eight mercs were visible, actually paired up along the hallway. Half on the left and half on the right, all behind the same kind of columns that had decorated Xerol's entryway.

We opened fire at roughly the same moment, their small arms sending sparks and ricochet's off my shields as my own larger weapon began to blow out massive chunks of stone and mortar from their cover. My barriers started to drain rapidly under the barrage, before their slid downwards was accelerated as half a dozen more guns opened up from behind me.

Some of that trailed off when Trak leaned out from the opposite corner, using my bulk to shield him from half our enemies, and opened up with his own rifle in short, controlled bursts.

Gritting my teeth, I tried to settle the targeting reticle around the mercs as best I could, trying not to swear as the system fought with me. It stabilized with the gun temporarily, letting me quickly blow apart a Batarian and a Turian in two short bursts, then went into a refresh that left me aiming manually. Which is to say totally unable to aim except in a vague direction.

_Motherfucking son of Athame's whore!_

I had a half a mind to drop the massive gun, but we had no idea what the hell Chacksin had with him. I might need the damn thing.

Behind me, Trak had been forced to duck back as a pistol round left a furrow on his right shoulder pauldron. Rane'li quickly moved up, her lighter gun barking as she finished off the merc he'd been focusing on. She'd barely even managed that before being force to duck back as well, the rest of the squad realizing that I wasn't about to turn around to fire at them.

_Fuck!  
_

"Pull back to the barricades," I snapped, ducking back and irritably glancing at the still cycling targeting system. "And hope they're stupid enough to move up on us."

"I doubt it." Trak's limp was worse, but he managed to get himself back all the same. "We haven't been that lucky so far."

We waited the long thirty seconds it took for my system to finally flash green, and no one was stupid enough to move into my sight.

Jabbing my chin against my transmit button, I spoke quickly and tersely, "This is Cieran. There's a squad at either end of this hall, we're blocked right now."

Gunfire snapped and barked as Nyn tried to shout over it, " _Confirmed. We're at the hanger but pinned down where the tunnel exits into it. Aethtya is injured. She tore apart three shuttles with just her biotics before a sniper caught her while her barriers cycled."_

I winced. If Aethyta was out of the fight there was no way Nyn and the others would even be able to hold their position, much less stop Chacksin from trying to flee.

_"Cieran, we took another one out with our grenades but there's still two more warming their engines up. We need you here, now."_

"Rane'li. Trak. Get your asses moving the other direction." Metal fingers curled tighter around my weapon, "You won't be able to keep up."

"Luck Kean." Rane'li rose, quickly moving over to throw on of Trak's arms around her neck. "How long can you give us?"

I glanced at my barriers, "Twenty seconds until my barriers finish recharging. Get to the servant's tunnel and barricade that end. You should be safe in there."

The pair set off at best they could, stumbling a bit before they managed to coordinate their movements and managed an awkward limping jog.

""Nyn, how far down the hall to the hanger?"

Aethtyta's voice, infused with more than a little pain, replied instead. " _Thirty meters on your left kid._ _NO one's watching the doors on this side, you'll be hitting them in the back."_

Which was something, I supposed. Of course, that was assuming that there wasn't someone with a grenade launcher just waiting in a side room between me and the doors.

The bar that tracked my barrier strength blinked green when they were about halfway down the hall. Blowing out a long breath, I gave them another five seconds before stepping out, trying to accelerate as rapidly as I could as the barrage of fire started to chip away at me yet again.

Fortunately for me, the mercs hadn't moved up. At all. If anything, they'd both actually pulled back a bit farther, probably to make it harder on my supporting guys to be able to hit them. Which meant that the people behind me, the ones I really had to worry about, were actually having a hard time hitting me despite my bulk.

The heavy gun in my hands began to rumble, the slow  _thud-thud-thud_ making the nearest Blue Suns tighten themselves deeper into cover. Whatever they were shouting to one another was drowned out by the rounds further demolishing the columns, though the screams and shouts of pain when I managed to get my aim steady enough reached me easily.

I managed to drop two of them before I was a bout halfway to the doorway's alcove, which was also about the same time as the five remaining Blue Suns in the distance behind me finally started to move. Whoever their leader was had the sense to realize that trying to shoot at me while they ran wasn't going to accomplish much, they're guns were held tight to their chests as they moved from jogging up to damn near sprinting.

_Fuck._

My luck wasn't good enough for them not to have grenades, and my barriers were already starting to flicker and fade as the remaining mercs in front of me cut loose on full auto in desperation.

I'd just caught sight of the door itself, firmly shut and sealed ahead on my left before a Blue Sun ducked out from behind a tasteful nude statue of an Asari, his shotgun already glowing with a Carnage round. If he'd have ducked out a few seconds earlier, or stayed back until I'd passed, he'd have probably done a good bit of damage to my right side. As it wise, his timing was perfect for me, my arms swinging my gun into line with his chest.

He yowled in pain as the dual-barrels of my gun hit him like a battering ram, cleanly lifting his body off the floor before I pulled the trigger twice.

Armor and flesh and blood exploded out of his back in a rather hideous fashion, and what was left of him fell to the ground as his scream cut off.

That scene apparently took the fight out of the mercs ahead of me, because they quickly started to backpedal out of cover. A few kept up some random shots that did little but leave scratches across my armor as they rebounded away, but most were content to bolt into side rooms and halls where I wouldn't be able to easily follow.

"Aethyta, the door?" Sparks flew as my flat feet brought me to a skidding halt, and it was a minor miracle that I didn't tip over as my eezo core frantically tried to adjust for the abrupt movement. "Reading locked!"

" _Athame's azure I'm working on it kid!"_ My eyebrows shot up at the pure irritation in her voice. " _Hold that side of the fucking door!"_

Another barrage of fire kept my depleted barriers down, and made me flinch to the right as my pursuers reached the intersection and fell into cover. Either they didn't see Rane'li and Trak or the pair had already made cover, because they all focused their fire on me. The good news was they didn't look like they had anything larger than assault rifles, but the bad news was that was still more than sufficient to worry me. Without my barriers the odds of a something managing to breach my armor, particularly on my worryingly vulnerable left side, went way the hell up.

I had just turned my back on the still retreating mercs, bringing my gun up to return fire on their braver comrades, when a fleeing Salarian had his chest blasted apart. A smattering of other small arms chattered for a moment, brutally cutting down the mercs trying to flee, before things went quiet on that end of the hall.

For a half a second I thought that the Eclipse had finally elected to show up, but then my rear camera caught sight of a massively tall form in heavy plating stepping over the corpse. The traditional light blue of his company had been replaced with an almost midnight hue, which was matched by the half a dozen similarly armed men who appeared, casually following him.

If the armor, which looked like it was even more expensive and gussied up more than Nyn's, wasn't a clue, the weaponry definitely was. The leader was holding a freaking Claymore as easily as I might carry my SMG, and his bodyguards had a well balanced group of equally expensive weaponry.

 _Including a fucking missile launcher.._ I licked my lips as a Turian casually lifted the weapon from his shoulder, getting it ready even if he wasn't quite taking aim. The gunfire from the other mercs sputtered and stopped as the elites casually halted about twenty meters away from me, leaving me equally sandwiched between the two groups.

"Defiler." Chackin chuckled darkly, and I could feel his grin even if I couldn't see it. "It would seem that the Pillars themselves smile upon me."

"Asshole." I returned, making sure to flick my radio to transmit.  _Aethyta, please work fast.._ "Surprised you didn't already run."

"Run?" His cronies laughed sycophantically in time with him, "Why should I run, human? Sederis is sedated and awaiting transport. All that is left is to remove the vermin attempting to interfere."

My teeth ground against one another as I fought to avoid saying anything, my heart hammering in realization. He'd probably paid off Sederis's security techs, feeding false footage to her cameras to make it seem like he was running. And the moment she had left whatever bunker she was in, he'd hit her hard. And with her down, his official job completed, he'd gone straight to more personal business.

"So." I shifted my armor, keeping my broad feet apart and leveled as I backed into the shut door, my eyes flicking rapidly between the two groups. "I suppose there's a point to this conversation?"

His hands almost lovingly caressed his massive gun. "There is time, defiler, for us to speak. The doors behind you will not be opening any time soon, my people are seeing to that. Oh don't worry, my traitorous bitch of a daughter won't be harmed by them."

My own weapon almost rose up to point at him before I fought the urge down. The armor's barriers were still almost totally depleted, and I didn't doubt that even the guys equipped with small arms had grenades on them. Probably anti-armor ones even, with my luck and his apparent intelligence. If I did anything threatening I'd probably be blasted apart, armor or no, before I could properly get enough shots into him to kill him.

Which left hoping that he was lying about what was happening in the hanger, and that Aethyta and Nyn would come through and give me the ability to back the fuck up while they helped.

"So talk then. Honestly I can't think of much I want to say to someone like you."

"Someone like me?" There was a definite snarl in his voice that made me eyebrows go up. "Do not  _dare_ judge me human, I am above the pathetic likes of you."

"Really." I drawled, trying not to notice how slowly my barriers were coming back up. "Fratricide isn't a big deal to Batarians?"

"Legally I no longer had a brother." his tone remained low, almost reverberating. "And now I truly don't. He is the reason I was exiled from Khar'shan, why I will never step foot on my home-world again. Never walk the halls of the Shaaryak manor. His death was far too kind, defiler. I don't intend to make the same mistake with you."

My eyes narrowed as the bar hit twenty-five percent, "That sounds ominous."

"You  _burned my wife to death._ " If he hadn't had a helmet on I'd expect to see him frothing at the mouth. "My sources will be punished most severely for not informing me of... oh.. oh." he broke off, the anger bleeding out of his voice as dark mirth slid back in. "You are stalling, defiler. For what, I wonder?"

"You can't honestly expect me to answer such an inane question." I resisted to the urge to flex my fingers as my body tensed. As soon as missile boy so much as twitched I had to be ready to move.

"Perhaps your memory is as pathetically bestial as the rest of your mind. I told you have no hope. Your Matriarch lies wounded and dying. Your escape is sealed. And within minutes my daughter and what pathetic few guards she has left will be captured." his gun hefted up to rest on his shoulder, "These are the last moments of your life that will not be filled with pain and agony. Surely even such a creature as you should accept that."

"The only thing I'm accepting about this is that your corpse is going to be on the floor in a few minutes." I snapped back. "I'd be a shitty Harath'krem if I allowed my Tarath'shan to be captured by a  _mercenary_ while I was still alive."

This time his snarl was echoed by the other Batarians amongst his guard, "Rest assured, defiler, I will find out how Xerol was able to bribe the Council of Patriarchs to accept you to that noble title."

" _Not hard to figure out."_ A new voice cut in, the Spectre's smooth tones making my lips curl. " _He was the only chance your people had of opening official trade with the Republic, which you neatly cut off. Did you know that the Hegemony put out a kill on sight order for you this morning?"_

Chacksin seemed to rock back in shock, either at the news or at the interruption, but probably both.

Vasir chuckled as she pressed on, " _By the goddess you really aren't all that intelligent. Cunning, maybe, but still stupid. Dom'serah was executed at Santiago's orders two hours ago for attempting to sell the Suns out to Khar'shan. Amazing what a few files from the Broker can do to.. clear up a situation. And don't worry, you won't be surviving very long either. Kean, you'll know the signal."_

_...The signal?_

"Kill-" Chacksin's scream was cut off when the window to his right shattered, the missile launcher wielding Turian suddenly collapsing as a sniper round blew his visor out.

My already keyed up body whipped into action, left arm screaming a bit in pain, the massive gun heaving up as the targeting circle started to slide onto Chacksin's body. But while the Blue Suns behind me were still trying to get their shit together, their boss and his guards were already starting to move.

The first two shots missed, streaking past him as he dropped into a sideways tuck and roll that I was stunned he could pull off in that armor. I caught his left leg with one round as I tried to follow the movement, his barriers holding against the impact as he slid to one knee, his shotgun braced against his shoulder.

His single shot nearly blew out my barriers on its own, and they collapsed less than a second later as his remaining guards slid into cover and blasted away. One didn't pick a good spot, his throat tearing open as the unseen sniper thundered again, painting his dark armor and the walls around him red as he collapsed, but the others were smart enough to tuck into the fucking alcoves and behind the damned statues that lined the hall.

_Move Cieran! You can't fight them at range like this!_

My legs were in motion even as the thought completed. If I stayed where I was, I could get a few more, but there wasn't any cover I could fit my massive form into. I had to close the distance to make sure my unwieldy gun could quickly hammer the guards apart. And the farther I got from potential grenade throwers behind me, the better.

Cutting off my fire from where I'd put a few rounds into the wall Chacksin was hiding behind, I'd barely begun to bring the weapon around before he and one of his guards slid out of cover almost in unison, their shotguns glowing red as the carnage rounds finished charging.

_Oh fuck-_

The guard's his my left slide, battering several replacement plates as the tortured metal screamed in protest. The impact was more than enough to make me stagger to the right, which let Chacksin's overcharged shot slam into the center of my chest. That particular plate held, but the force was sufficient to blow out the further weakened panels on the left side. The two pieces that protected my side flew free, the massive noise of the metal hitting the ground obscured by the ringing in my ears.

I didn't go over, but I did stumble to the right, my counter-fire faltering as my right shoulder impacted the wall hard enough to bounce me against the padding.

"Athame's tits!"

Leaning in that direction to counter my imbalance, I lurched back into motion, focusing as best I could on the guardsman. He tried to duck into cover to give his weapon time to cool, but my stumbling steps let my slow firing shots clip his arm, then his side, before the third and fourth rounds hammered their way into his chest.

"Focus fire left side!" Chacksin snarled, breaking from his own cover as he realized it wouldn't help him. "Pry him loose!"

It wouldn't take them much. The plating that had been blasted free left my entire side below the arm hideously exposed. The only thing between the light armor I was wearing and their guns was a few inches of wiring, whirring motors, and supporting bars. Which against bullets, basically meant nothing.

Acting on reflex I swung the double barrels of my gun like an awkward club, barely missing Chacksin as he ducked under the wild swing. His Claymore was still glowing hot, which probably saved me from having him put a point blank shot into my right side as he dove past me.

I started to turn after him, then suddenly realized that his desperate move to get past me had been nothing of the kind. If I followed up on my turn, I'd expose the gaping hole in my armor to his guards. If turned to my left, I'd give him the perfect chance to repay his wife in kind by shoving a grenade right into me.

_Which leaves one fucking option._

My legs flexed as I shoved off, barreling away from the man I desperately wanted to kill and towards his bodyguards.

Whatever they'd been expecting that apparently hadn't been it. The three survivors froze as I bore down on them, albeit briefly, but that was enough for my extended legs to eat up a pair of long steps. Leveling my gun on along my right side, I put a long burst into the Turian frantically trying to push himself from his kneeling pose, his blue blood decorating the stone walls behind him.

The Batarian on that side managed to get upright, his assault rifle stitching a line of sparks across my right arm and onto my chest.

Which was as much as he managed before another pair of steps brought my close enough to raise my arms up and smash my left forearm onto his shoulder. He dropped with the sickening sound of cracking bones to go with the shattering armor, his scream strangely high pitched as he thrashed on the ground.

If the last guard was rattled the quick deaths of his companions he didn't show it, pushing off from his back foot to try and get inside of my ability easily aim at him, his sub-machine gun tittering at full auto as he did. Several of the shots found my left side as he tried to focus his inaccurate fire there, and that arm grew stiff as several lines snapped with audible  _pops_.

Stiff or not, in both armor and flesh, I could still move it, hauling it in to swing my gun even as I shifted my body to try and track him.

I thought I had him, the first round blasting his barriers before the second made him stumble against the wall. The third would have ended his life if a flurry of tinkling metal hadn't heralded the arrival of several grenades.

Neither of us had a chance to react before the world exploded around us. Alarms shrieked in my helmet even as my ribs felt like someone had just taken a hammer to them, and I stumbled almost drunkenly as my left arm locked up for a brief instant before going entirely limp. The full weight of the armor immediately wrenched my still sore arm downwards, which naturally made me yowl with pain.

Trying to keep myself alive while I regained my wits, I began to pack up and turn, to present my still armored right side to the mercs who had apparently caught up. I didn't have to worry about the last guardsman, the less-than friendly fire had left what was left of him slumped against the wall.

I managed a one step before Chacksin, standing no more than a meter away, put another carnage round right into my chest.

I had no time to brace myself or to lean into the impact, the explosion literally rocking my world as it whirled around me. My back slammed against the padding as I hit the ground, my teeth slamming together painfully as I barely avoided biting my tongue. All the while alarms were shrieking and flashing, highlighting the fact that the thick torso plate had been cracked thoroughly by the shot. By some miracle it hadn't been shattered entirely, but even a regular shot would put paid to it at this point.

"No, leave him!" There was the sound of a fist hitting armor. "By the pillars he has to  _suffer_  for what he did!"

_Fuck.. no.. get up!_

"Dont' even think about it." Chacksin snarled as I started to shift, a pistol roaring as my world exploded in pain.

"Athame's..." I gasped as the pain cut off the oath, my entire side on fire as my vision swam. "Son of a..."

"Please defiler. I doubt I punctured anything vital, this is merely the barest tastes of what will happen to you."

My eyes managed to focus, showing him actually crouching on top of me, his shotgun apparently discarded as he held a pistol straight into one of several holes in armor, ready to fire again whenever he felt like it.

_Aethyta should have been through the door by now... Vasir.. Nyn.. where?_

There was a quiet chuckle as he shifted his weight slightly, his head cocking to one side. "You all, help yourselves to my guardsman's weaponry. Then get into the hanger and bring me my daughter. I want her to watch me pry this creature from its shell."

Mercs appeared in the edges of my vision, jostling one another as they picked from the high quality guns available.

"Now, defiler. Where should I start? I'm told your kind has particularly vulnerable muscles in your ankles.. or perhaps your fingers? No, too much risk of blood loss.. unless I cauterize them for you." The chuckle was louder this time as I tried not to flinch, fighting the rising fear that his words were causing.

One of the Blue Suns on my right, having grabbed the sub-machine gun after tossing his pistol aside, stiffened as he turned back . "Commander.."

Chacksin actually growled at him, "The act of instilling terror in our victims is an art honed by our species, and you are disrupting what I intend to turn into a masterpiece."

"But, Commander!" The grunt started to bring his gun up before freezing in place.

"WHAT!?" His leader snarled, his head whipping around as he yanked his pistol free. He rocked slightly in surprise before his entire body went stock still.

And Nyn's voice had never sounded sweeter to me when she spoke, even as fury coursed through every syllable. "Chacksin ul Shaaryak. Get off my Harath'krem and I will consider making you end swift."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter finally features Chacksin in the flesh, and a few combat scenes that I'm quite fond of. For everyone still hoping for Zaeed.. I swear that he had a much larger roll in my original Act 3 outline, but things just haven't worked out that way. I do still have a very important task that's going to setup where things really shift a bit from canon (teaser there) for him though, so that's something, right. The next chapter will feature the finale to the conflict with Chacksin and put the first pieces into play for the sequel.
> 
> As for the chapter name.. the name originally referred to Ghai, who had a much larger role in this act before she was injured. Then it shifted to Nyn, then away from her as I wrote this out to refer to an inanimate object (Cieran's scavenged gun, without which Chackskin and his guards would have torn him apart).


	35. The Joker

Chacksin shifted his weight slightly, keeping his weapon more or less pointed at the wreckage that had once been my armor. For my part, all I could really do was wheeze in pain with each breath. The throbbing agony was making it difficult to think, and it was all i could do to grind my teeth and try to push it to the side.

"If any of you come closer I will kill this creature."

Nyn's voice carried the same strained patience she used when trying to instruct me on proper etiquette. "Obviously that is the only reason we have yet to open fire."

"Speak for yourself Shaaryak." Trena sounded like she was in agony, but managed to inflect wry amusement into her voice all the same. "I can make the shot."

"Not before I pulled the trigger." Chacksin snapped back, "If you want this  _creature_ to surive you'll do as I say."

"And that would be?" I could picture my Tarath'shan making a move it along gesture with one hand as she held a pistol up with the other. "Skip the theatrics if you would."

There was a quiet snarl, "Fine. You and your lowborn cretin will remain there. The defiler will be removed from his shell. I will shove my pistol into his mouth and we will enter the nearest shuttle. I will allow him to leave once it is airborne."

"No. You wouldn't." Nyn shot back.

Aethyta's voice was quiet, barely audible over my speakers. " _Kid. Twitch your left fingers if you can hear me."_

It hurt to shift them, especially without power, but I managed to barely tweak them a bit.

" _Wounded?"_

I did it again.

"I am not giving you a choice  _girl._ " Chacksin continued on above me, thankfully too wrapped in his conversation to hear Aethyta or wonder why my fingers were moving. "If you refuse I will kill this thing that you seem so fond of."

"Kill him and you will die hideously over the course of months." Nyn snapped back, any semblance of civility gone. "You will remove yourself from atop him. You will throw your weapons aside. You will order the remainder of your mercenaries to do the same."

" _He's still got better than thirty people playing tag with the Eclipse in the hanger."_ The Matriarch's voice was rushed as she explained, " _Vasir's jamming his comms so that he doesn't realize that. Nyn and her people double-backed and circled around. We need to keep him talking until Vasir can fight her way through from the other wing."_

 _Fat chance of that happening._ He'd picked up on me stalling in a matter of moments, anger or not. It wouldn't take him long to realize that Nyn and Trena, and how the hell had she gotten in here?, were doing the same. And as soon as he did that, he'd probably kill me just to make a point, or to at least take his wife's killer down with him.

"By the pillars Xerol did nothing to instill intelligence in you. You  _care_ about this thing. You won't fire while I have him at gunpoint."

" _Your armor kid, your light shit. Are the barriers up?"_

I had no idea. Linking that armor to the exoskeleton's computers hadn't been something I'd ever considered doing. Which now seemed to be a stupidly massive oversight on my part. Still.. it had been a minute or so since the grenade barrage and gunshot, so in theory they should be up.. in theory.

_And he's only packing a standard issue pistol, not a hand cannon like Nyn's.. even at close range the armor should hold.. I hope._

Hesitantly I shifted my fingers again.

_"Your exoskeleton's barriers?"_

Weren't recharging. Whatever damage had been done when I'd fallen, or when the grenade barrage had happened, had apparently put paid to those systems. I didn't move.

There was a quiet pause before Nyn spoke, "Trena. Illyan. The front two."

Two sniper rifles barked in time with one another, followed almost instantaneously by the sound of two bodies dropping to the floor.

Chacksin didn't move, and more importantly didn't shoot me.

A fact that didn't escape Nyn's attention in the slightest. "You four. I believe it was just made clear how much your illustrious commander cares about your lives. Drop your weapons and walk away."

"If any of you move I will make sure that your and your families are hunted down and exterminated." Chacksin snarled, his arm shaking slightly with anger. "And do not for an instant believe that I will not."

"You'd have to survive this day for that to happen. And that will not occur." Nyn retorted, "You have ten seconds before I have them kill two more of you."

"You have five until I kill this defiler for your insolence."

"By Athame's fucking azure.." Trena's disgusted voice carried easily, "If you kill him we'll tear you apart slowly and you bloody well know it."

"Then perhaps I should..." his voice trailed off and I gulped down a deep breath, forcing myself not to wince at the waves of pain as I tensed myself, getting ready to move. "Oh. Oh I see. You retreated through the servant's ducts like the vermin you are. My people still hold the hanger, don't they?"

"Whether or not they do is hardly germane to this situation." If Nyn was rattled that he'd leapt to the appropriate conclusion, she didn't' show it. "If any of your people approach the doors they will be shot. Which leaves us where we are."

"Indeed." Some of the fury bled out as he seemed to muse on that. "You cannot shoot me while I hold my weapon here, not with only a single of your whore snipers able to target me.. Yet I cannot leave without risking that he would survive my shot, waiting for your dread Spectre to arrive to kill me."

"Your point, Chacksin ul Shaaryak?"

His shoulders rose and fell, "That I will need my army, of course. Shoot the door."

"Do it and you'll-" Nyn didn't get to finish her threat. Apparently the Blue Suns were more terrified of their own leader's threats than they were of the people who'd just gunned down their comrades. All four survives unloaded at the sealed door, the metal ringing as the bullets struck it. Sniper rifles barked again, this time punctuated with the quieter snaps of Nyn's pistol and carbines.

The chaotic din lasted for a few moments, the gunfire falling off as the four Suns died messy, painful deaths. But the short silence that followed the last of them dropping had hardly begun before the massive doors began to slid apart, my cameras giving me a good view of Blue Suns glancing through the widening gap.

"Sir!"

"Get your asses out here and take care of them!" Chacksin snarled, half-turning to wave his other hand in Nyn and Trena's direction. "And someone destroy the defiler's weapon!"

It wasn't a perfect opening, but I'd take it.

Snarling in pain, I heaved myself up and to the left as if I was about to roll out of a bed. The suits eezo core and gyros felt the motion and translated it for the motors and artificial muscles within the exoskeleton. My right arm swung hard upwards as I began to roll, Chacksin's orders fading into a scream of fury as his gun fired again. Something like a sledgehammer swung by a fucking Krogan slammed into my side before he was hurled off of me, his scream of agony mirroring mine.

Nyn's shout of "Cieran!" mirrored Trena's of "Ape!" before the Suns began to pour into the hallway and the echoing roar of gunfire in an enclosed space made conversation impossible. My right arm shuddered as the mercs followed his orders, the gun's data on my hud snapping out as they tore it apart.

_It hurts.. it hurts.. it fucking hurts.. get up... fucking hurts.. get up Cieran.._

Finishing my roll, I tucked my legs under me, forcing the armor into a kneeling posture as my side furiously throbbed in pain.

There was too much going on around me to keep track of. The Suns had piled into the hallway, but seemed to have too much going on to be worried about me, even though I was in the center of their formation. Instead they were taking whatever cover they could, pouring fire in both directions.

_There you are.._

Chacksin had either hit the wall or rolled up against it when he'd gotten tossed off of me. He was cradling his bare right hand with his still armored left, still yowling and snarling in pain. His gauntlet and pistol must have gotten caught on some of the torn plating or machinery when he'd shoved it right into the exoskeleton, and they had both been ripped free when I'd rolled.

"Asshole." I snarled, pure fury and anger pushing the pain aside. My legs propelled me unsteadily upwards, my right hand dropping the remains of my gun before curling into a fist.

Speaking was probably a mistake. His head snapped up at the sound of my voice, and he ducked, barely avoiding the fist that left a small crater in the stone wall.

It took me a moment to realize that the snarl of frustration had come from me, but at that point it didn't matter. Still showing his unreal ability to move in heavy plate, he rolled under my arm as I wildly swung it back in the other direction. The stomp that I followed it up with did nothing but crush someone's weapon, his body smoothly rising to a crouch even with his right arm held tightly to his chest.

"My Claymore!" He snarled before neatly sidestepping another punch. "Where is it!?"

"Don't know sir!" A luckless merc shouted back, flinching into cover as a round left a deep scar on his shoulder plate.

"Then give me your weapon fool!" I clipped his right shoulder with my next swing, which made him snarl in pain as the heavy pauldron went flying, revealing the lighter armor beneath. "Now!"

The merc hesitated for a long moment before throwing his rifle in his commander's direction, following that up with curling up as tightly as he could in cover. A few of the others seemed to glance at me, before another set of barrages forced them to stay occupied fighting off whoever was still out there.

Chacksin tried to catch it as he stumbled, only to flinch as his right hand was struck by the flying weapon, dropping it to the ground... which distracted him long enough for me to simply barrel straight into him.

I expected the body slam to send him flying, but somehow he managed to grab a hold with his one good hand, clinging to my chest as I skidded to a halt. Neither of us payed more than the barest attention to the merc that I hit as I did so, crushing the Turian's ankle as I slid into him. He didn't have much time to complain about that though, he stumbled in front of one of the windows, allowing our unseen sniper to efficiently kill him with another shattering of glass.

"Get off me dammit!" My right arm flailed as I tried to grab at Chacskin, my fingers seizing his other pauldron only to yank it free instead of pulling his entire frame off of me.

"First you die!" He snarled back, his legs snapping up to plant his feet squarely against me. Somehow he managed to kick himself off of me, his left arm swiping something off of his belt and hurling it all in the same fucking motion.

_Who the FUCK trained this guy!?_

The tech mine slapped against my chest before exploding in the arced lightning of an overload, my HUD flickering madly as back-up systems kicked in to try and keep everything running.

My systems cleared in time to give me a good view of him ducking past me, falling into a soccer style slide to grab the merc's weapon as he reached it.

The pain was starting to come back as the anger faded, and I had to shake my head and blink to keep it clear.

_Must be losing blood.. no. I'm killing this asshole...if it's the last fucking thing I do in this realm, it's killing him._

I doubted that my Visage on my back had survived the roll, and in either case I couldn't draw it properly without both hands. Twisting my upper half to my left to protect that side, I lumbered forwards, careful not to move too quickly and give him a chance to duck around me before I could recover.

His handling of the weapon was awkward, his right hand barely able to hold the front grip as he put a short burst into my right side, the rounds ricocheting into the floor and ceiling.

Not daring to risk the wild swings I'd thrown in my fury, I kept my arm tight and punched at him with a quick jab, which he neatly ducked. True to form, he did so to his right and my left, forcing me to shift my massive frame to keep him away from the gaping hole in my armor.

"You can't keep me at bay forever,  _defiler."_ A three-shot burst made my ears ring as he sent it off my armored head-box. "And your companions will be dead soon enough."

"I doubt it." It cost me a lot to get the words out, pain almost making me stumble. Throwing another jab I forced my legs to keep moving, trying to use my bulk to force him to move. If I could keep pressing him back, into the lines of his mercs fighting and dying just a few meters behind him, maybe Nyn or Trena could blast him in the back.

We kept up that awkward dance for over a minute. He'd put carefully timed shots off of my armor, trying to make me flinch. I'd throw controlled punches and swipes at him, trying to push him where I wanted. All the while it became harder to focus, the pain growing more intense with each movement. Worse, every time I started to get press him in the right direction, he'd duck under my arm and try and make a break for the hanger, forcing me to rapidly backpedal to stop him from trying to escape.

It was the classic fight. He, especially with the portions of his armor torn away, was light and fast. He could duck and dodge my strikes and try and chip away at me, but so long as I was cautious he couldn't end the fight quickly. My armor, in contrast, was massively strong and bulky, but it sure as hell wasn't quick. It might only take one or two direct hits for me to end his life, but I needed to be able to hit him first.

 _Can't keep this up Cieran.._ My eyes tightened as a pair of shots left new scars on my chest plate.  _You need to find a way to lock him in place.. dammit. If my fucking left arm worked.. wait.._

The arm itself was too heavy for my muscles to move on their own, effectively leaving me with a metal cast on. But the arm itself wasn't locked. It was shifting as I moved, and if I could use that at the right time..

" _Hold on kid. Vasir will be here in a minute!"_ Aethyta sounded about as bad off as I was, but her custom rifle was still ripping the air apart as she fired on whoever she was fighting. " _Just keep him busy a bit longer!"_

I wasn't sure I had another minute. And.. there was an easy way to keep him locked in place for the long moment I needed.

Gulping down another deep breath, I threw my right arm out as I practically lunged forwards. As smoothly as ever, he ducked into a crouch and rolled to his right, neatly coming to one knee with his gun already snapping to aim at my most vulnerable spot.

Bracing myself for yet more pain, I planted my feet and spun hard to my right. My left arm, shoulder, ribs, everything on that side exploded in pain as I flexed, doing everything I could to left that arm up I twisted.

More hammer blows hit me, and a single sharp knife of pain lanced into my gut. I heard his bellow of success at finally having accomplished his goal... which cut off as my limp left arm, thrown up and outwards thanks to the centripetal force of my turn, slammed into his head.

The blow drove him sideways, his armored frame clattering to the floor with a loud yelp of pain.

Everything hurt. But the sight of him rolling slowly in pain, trying to gather his wits, galvanized me.

Staggering forwards, my throat tore from my howl of pain as I bent over. The metal fingers of my right hand wrapped around his helmet. Yanking my arm backwards to rip it free, I hurled the crumpled metal aside.

The Batarian face staring back at me was not dissimilar to Xerol's. A bit leaner perhaps, with smaller ridges around his mouth, but it was easy to tell that they had been brothers.

"You.." I wheezed out, my hand snapping down again to grab his head. His scream was muffled by the metal, and I continued on as if he wasn't. "Threatened... my Tarath'shan... that.. is.. not.. allowed.."

The gunfire around us slowly sputtered and cut out as I hefted him up, his arms and legs starting to kick as he tried to get free.

Not giving him the chance, I turned and slowly lumbered a handful of steps towards the wall nearest the hanger doors. The pair of Blue Suns using that alcove as cover scurried back as I staggered past them.

Hefting him up a bit more, I made myself meet his upper eyes, the lower set obscured by the hand that griped his skull. His dark eyes were wide with panic, his good hand trying to pry the exoskeleton's fingers loose as I held him tightly. I pulled him a bit closer, feeling as his legs began to pound at my chest in desperation..

Then I slammed him against the wall with every bit of enhanced strength my power armor had. Something cracked horribly and his body went limp at once, a quiet gasping noise seeming to echo from the mercs around me.

Relaxing my fingers, I let what was left of Nyn's father drop to the ground, a massive stain of red blood visible where the back of his head had been driven into the wall.

"Anyone else care to test my Harath'krem?" My Tarath'shan shouted into the sudden silence that followed, her voice smug beyond all reason.

I wanted to laugh at that, but could only gasp in pain.

Still, the remaining Blue Suns, perhaps twenty of them, started to throw down their guns. First just a few, then eight or so, then the rest, their weapons falling with clatters to the ground.

"All of you back away from him!" I turned enough to see her emerging from her own cover, quickly accelerating as what was left of her squad followed her. "Eclipse! If you could gather the prisoners for the Matriarch and Spectre to deal with?"

_Eclipse?_

Turning the other way, and fighting not to fall over as I did so, I caught sight of a dozen or so people in the Eclipse's yellow armor emerging from the blockade at the hall's other end. That certainly explained where the extra firepower had come from, and I idly wondered when they'd gotten here.

_And.. when did I end up on the floor?_

"Cieran?" Nyn was standing in front of me, frantically examining my armor. "Cieran!"

"Here.." I groaned out, shaking my head. I'd apparently sat down beside Chacksin's body, as best I could in the armor. My torso was leaning against the same wall I'd driven him into, leaving Nyn wobbling on my legs as she tried to figure out how to help me. "Sorry... lost..behind.. my eyes.."

If anything her motions grew faster, "Cieran, you need to shut this down. We have to get you out of it."

Out of the armor. Right.

Leaning my head forwards, I jabbed my chin into the appropriate button, the rumble of my engine dying as it cut out. The legs tightened as they locked up, and the hydraulics squealed as they pressed the torso open. Well, open on the right side at least. The left's sent sparks flying as the motors ground, the pistons moving in fits and starts.

Nyn actually had to haul on it to get it the rest of the way open, half-helped by Trena and Chen who'd managed to catch up.

"By the pillars," my Tarath'shan's voice was soft as she leaned into see me. "Illyan! We need a medic! Now!"

Strong hands grabbed at my shoulders, carefully pulling me forwards. I hissed in pain as the movement strained my stomach.. and gave me a good view of the blood in the armor with me.

"Cieran. Harath'krem!" Nyn's voice snapped, the pure authority in her voice making my eyes slide up to meet her helmet. "We have to pull you out. Take a deep breath, all right?"

I did so, clenching my eyes shut at the pain of doing so.

"Chen, take T'laria's place. All right.. now."

My world became pain as they pulled me up, only the exhaustion keeping any screams at bay. They did it as quickly as they could, heaving me out of the exoskeleton before guiding my limp body to the floor beside it. Someone, Nyn I thought, put something soft beneath my head, before hands started to pull at my armor and clothing.

"Goddess.." Trena's voice was hushed. "Ape.."

"T'laria."Nyn's voice was hard as the light chest plate was pulled off, making me shiver as cold air hit my sweat drenched shirt. "Shut up and get your medigel out."

My vision swam back into focus, letting me see Trena and Nyn both kneeling over me with their helmets off, Chen standing guard over them as they worked.

_Can't be that bad.. I'd be dead already.._

I started to lean upwards, trying to get my elbows under me so I could see for myself, but Nyn firmly grabbed my shoulders and held me still. "Cieran, no. Stay still."

"Sorry.." the words brought another gasp of pain as something throbbed. "Your kill.. stole it.."

Something in between a laugh and a sob came from her throat before she pressed her lips to mine, her earthy taste like heaven as I was able to focus on something besides the pain.

"It's all right, Harath'krem." She held me tightly as Trena started to apply the medigl, the cold gel making me shake briefly before it warmed up. It didn't take the anesthetics long to kick in, Nyn murmuring soothing words into my ear as I started to relax with a groan.

Without the pain.. I just felt tired. Laying there, with my Tarath'shan speaking quietly.. and really, I was just so exhausted.. what could a little sleep hurt..

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So.. here we are. In the final bits of Act 3. This chapter is a bit shorter, but this was the right place to cut it. Chacksin ul Shaaryak is dead, Cieran is badly wounded, and the divergence point from canon has occurred.. even if what exactly that was won't become clear until the next chapter.
> 
> The next chapter will deal with the aftermath of this one, and will have a much longer Author's note at the end to go over some things. And yes, again no Zaeed, but he'll be making a definitive appearance next chapter and will be involved in the epilogues. At the moment, I'm planning a on a very short Epilogue arc to wrap up some loose ends and cover the weeks immediately following these events (probably 3 chapters). As far as the other people's points of view concept goes.. that's still in the works. Right now I'm leaning towards having it as a seperate fic as basically a collection of one-shots, or maybe also inserting them into this fic and the next as interludes.. still haven't decided, or even started to write them, so I'll keep you all updated.


	36. The Deck

"Ape, come on." A hand gently flicked my forehead, making my eyes snap open blearily. Trena was kneeling over me now, her gem colored eyes ringed with dark circles as she looked at me. "Finish waking up there.."

"Hard.." I muttered, trying to focus on what she was saying. My body felt like lead, except for a bit soreness in my neck... and was I in a hospital room? When the fuck had that happened?. "..Neck? Room?"

"Anesthesia." Her eyes narrowed a bit with worry. "Seriously, you don't remember the bloody medics working on you, us hauling your ass to a shuttle, then flying to the fucking hospital? You were in and out the entire goddess damned time!"

"No." I admitted, some of the exhaustion falling away as my body began to inform me of just where else it was sore. Which was pretty much the entire left side of my torso. "How bad?"

"You're lucky I-Sec got there with human plasma." She stated bluntly, "You've got a regenerator pumping shit into your guts, three broken ribs on your left side, and your shoulder was dislocated again. None of that would be all that bad, but you were close to bleeding out by the time the medics got here. Apparently one of his shots nicked an artery in your belly or some shit. Didn't cut it all the way or you'd have been dead, but give you another ten or fifteen and the medics wouldn't have been any help."

My throat was tight as I forced my dry mouth to swallow. "Oh."

"Sorry, fucking idiot. I was supposed to give you water. Here." She carefully brought a straw to my lips. The cold liquid felt absolutely divine as I sipped it down. "You didn't go into shock, goddess knows how. You're in the same room as Ghai, she's just on the other side of that curtain. Aethyta's got two of her birds outside standing guard."

 _Cool.. I think.._ "..Battle?"

Her lips curled. "You did good ape. Crushed that asshole's skull and broke what was left of the Suns. Vasir and the Eclipse took the rest prisoner."

"Nyn? Our guys?"

"Your bond mate is fine. She's making sure your armor makes it back to the mansion, and that the other wounded are all right. She'll be here once that's done and her other people are taken care of." her voice trailed for a moment, "We lost two. Trak and Tullan. Everyone but Shaaryak was wounded."

I blinked, making my head turn to take her in. Sure enough there was a tight bandage wrapped around her right arm, but she waved me attention off weakly. "I'm fine ape. Scratch really."

Taking her word for it I nodded and let my head drop limply against the bed's pillow again, trying not to look at the blankets covering my lower half. There was a lump where the regenerator was probably sitting, and an IV line letting more plasma drip into me.

"You were supposed to tell me when he woke up." A new voice cut in, a purple skinned Asari coming breezing into the room as she threw Trena a glare. "Cieran Kean, is it?"

"Yeah.." I nodded as best I could.

"You've been rather severely wounded, but you should make a full recovery if you're careful." She flicked her omni-tool open, apparently to check my vitals. "Whatever you managed to do after getting wounded nearly killed you though."

"Didn't have much of a choice." I murmured, not entirely sure how to feel about what I'd just done. On one hand, I'd really,  _really_ wanted to kill that asshole. On the other hand.. I'd really,  _really_ enjoyed killing a sentient being.. and that wasn't something I was comfortable with. Even if he'd fucking deserved it. "Don't think I'll be doing that any time soon."

"Here's hoping." Trena murmured, wincing as she settled into the chair beside my bed. "But we've got a lot to fucking talk about for that."

"Not while I'm in here you don't." The nurse shot back, giving us each a warning glance. "By the goddess I'm involved in enough shit in my own life without adding your problems."

We both took the hint and shut up, waiting until she'd finished checking on me, informing me we'd be at the hospital in a few minutes. Once she'd given me a bit more water, then vanished back into the hallway after reminding Trena to let her know if anything even seemed slightly off with me.

Once the door was shut, Trena slipped off of her chair into a crouch, leaning down to murmur into my ear.

"Vasir is losing her shit. Apparently she hasn't been able to find Chacksin's omni-tool, and she thinks there's a ton of data on it." She shook her head slightly. "Damn near accused Aethyta of taking it and they almost went at it."

It took me a few moments to work through that. "What kind of intel? And really?"

Her broad shoulders shrugged, "No idea, and yeah. We wouldn't know without the omni-tool. He didn't have any memory discs on him, or tablets. And Aethyta.. that old fish wouldn't let her interrogate all of us without the Council's official say-so."

I blinked. "Can't.. she.. you know.. kill us?"

"Sort of." Trena's lips thinned. "On paper she could. But with that asshole dead her mandate from the Council to deal with it is over with. She'd have to come up with a very fucking good reason or risk having her status revoked. And Aethyta's reported into the Republics, and those old bitches aren't happy about how little she did here. Already summoned her to Thessia for a debriefing."

"Good." The farther away the Spectre was the better. I had to fight the urge to cover my mouth as I let out a long yawn. Even just talking was tiring me the hell out. "Aethyta's all right then?"

"More than a shot to the leg to kill that old fish." She confirmed with a chuckle, before reaching out to tap my cheek again. "Come on ape, stay awake for now."

"'M fine scales." I couldn't stop another yawn, "So it's over for now?"

For a second I thought she hesitated, then a warm blue hand rested on my forehead. "It's over for now Cieran."

"Good.." my eyes closed of their own accord, and my friend didn't say anything as the darkness claimed me once again.

When I woke up, I was still in the hospital bed. Which was utterly unsurprising, but at least there was sunlight streaming in through the window now. It was leaving me pleasantly warm, even if my eyes weren't thrilled at the brightness. And from the way my stomach felt, they'd removed the regenerator and stitched me up, which probably meant I'd lost at least a day or more.

"Looks who's awake." Nyn chuckled quietly as I winced at the light. Warm lips caressed my cheek before she spoke again, "Water before you speak."

She brought the straw to my mouth, making sure that I sucked down a good amount of the cold liquid before she removed it. Turning my head a bit, my lips pulled into a slight smile at the sight of her. As Trena had said, she hardly seemed any the worse for wear for what we'd just gone through, all of her dark eyes gleaming as she regarded my fondly.

"Nyn.." Lifting my right arm so that my hand could wrap around hers took far more effort than I would have liked. ".. how long was I out?"

"Only two days." One of her shoulders shrugged as her fingers entwined themselves with mine. "It allowed me to get some work done, some calls made. Chen and Marn stood guard outside the door during the night, two of Aethyta's people are there right now. Along with another whom I have to speak with. I'd have rather had the meeting elsewhere.. but the doctors said that you would awaken soon and I wished to be here."

Which was beyond kind of her, and my fingers squeezed as tightly as I could before the rest of what she said caught up with my brain, "Thanks Nyn.. wait, who else is out there?"

"Someone we'll have to talk with, once we're done speaking." She pulled back slightly with a sigh. "Cieran.. you..  _we_  just killed a Blue Sun commander. One who was running an operation designed to permanently cripple their largest rival."

I winced as her fingers tightened. "Vasir said Serah was dead. I mean, it was his plan right?'

She gave me a very pointed look.

"Right.." My eyes closed as I sighed. "Even if it was his idea Santiago and what's-his-name,"

"Vosque."

"Right, him.. even without the whole Batarian and Hegemony angle, they'd have wanted the True Son thing to work." I winced again as my brain began its normal functionality. "Not to mention the fact that they wouldn't want to set a precedent of people fucking with them. We're going to be marked, aren't we?"

Her voice was quiet. "The bounties were posted on Omega this morning, for everyone involved in this operation, excepting the Spectre. A quarter of a million for me and Captain Vasir, a half for you, and a full million for Aethyta. Smaller amounts for I-Sec officers involved, Marn and Chen.. those kinds of people."

_My head is worth half a million credits..and everyone else.. and Aethyta. This can't have happened in canon. What the fuck did I change?_

Swallowing, I blew out a breath. "What do we do?"

Her eyes narrowed slightly. "If you are going to suggest that we flee, I will hit you. Currently invalid or no."

" _Lead your lord not into the desert in search of safety, but instead to the mountains of your enemy's fastness, where you might strike them down."_ I quoted righteously, trying to keep my exhausted voice solemn.

An honest smile graced her face, and she leaned down to kiss my cheek again. "Duties of the Harath'krem as inscribed upon the Fifth Pillar. Appropriate."

"Thank you." I sighed as she pulled back. "So we fight back against a mercenary company that controls a quarter of the Terminus, where every punk with a gun will want to kill us. Job description of my title or not that doesn't really seem like something we'd survive for more than a week trying."

"Not.. exactly what I had in mind." Her lower eyes lowered as she pulled something out of her pocket. "I found this in your armor when we transported it back to the mansion."

My eyes slid down before widening at what she was holding. "That's-"

A hand slid over my mouth, "We don't know who might be listening. Even here."

I nodded, only slightly regretful as she pulled back. "You want to use it? How?"

"That's what we have to talk about." Nyn settled back into her chair. "I have already spoken with T'laria and Aethyta, and they approve of what I intend. But as you're my Harath'krem, I wanted to speak with you as well."

"Ok.."

She nodded before glancing at the door with her upper eyes while her lower set refocused on me, the device sliding back into her pocket. "My first thought was to simply use it as he did, to force them to back off at the threat of it becoming public. However that is no guarantee.. and we would still be targets simply for holding it."

"Yeah." I couldn't argue with that. "Even if we set up a dead drop or something.. hard to enjoy whatever damage we did if we're already dead."

Her lips twitched as she nodded. "Just so. Which leaves another option: using it to attack them directly."

It took my sluggish head a few moments to translate that for itself. "How do you know what's on it would do that much damage?"

"His password was his wife's name, backwards." she shook her head bemusedly at that. "As much as I loathed him he was cunning enough, but that is apparently a far cry from actually being intelligent. I've already made several copies of the data, and skimmed it to a degree."

"Oh." Only remembering that she didn't want to go into details made me stop from asking about them.

She knew me well enough to gently squeeze my hand and give me a small smile, wordlessly promising to let me satiate my curiosity later. "Just putting the data out there might not be enough if their leadership is able to react quickly enough, so Aethyta recommended that I speak with someone. He was one of Vasir's team members before she was recalled, and was not exactly happy with her failure to live up to his promised payment. Some of what I have might be useful to him."

 _Oh. That would be who's out there waiting then._ "Who's out there?" I had to ask, purely for form.

"Mr. Massani. If you would please enter."

She'd barely finished speaking before the mercenary shoved the door open, stomping in as his mismatched army clattered. In open violation of hospital rules he had a lit cigar smoldering in his mouth, blowing out a cloud of smoke as removed it with a hand. Behind him, an Asari I didn't know glided into the room, taking up a position near the door. She was in plainclothes, but was doing absolutely nothing to hide the compacted shotgun sitting in a shoulder holster.

"Bout goddamn time squ... girlie." The mercenary practically vibrated with impatience. "First that bloody Spectre stiffs me and leaves me stuck on this god forsaken rock, then you and that old bat send me that cryptic message about shit I want."

Nyn stiffened slightly in irritation, her head tilting subtly to the right. "Mr. Massani. You come highly recommended by Matriarch Aethyta."

The hand clutching his cigar waved, "Enough with the goddamn pleasantries. I don't much care for your kind."

"Nor I yours." She retorted smoothly. "But we have a mutual enemy in the Blue Suns."

"And what? You want to team up or some shit like that?" His one good eye narrowed in disbelief.

"Hardly. I want to use you." Her lips pulled back, showing her teeth. "The Matriarch told me that you would give anything for the whereabouts of the Blue Suns leadership."

His entire body went still. Not normal still either. When most people go still they still waver a bit on their feet, their breathing making them shift. He turned into a damned statue, only his eye narrowed as he stared hard at the both of us.

"I will give you their locations and one million credits to hire a strike team of your own choosing." Nyn continued speaking. "Along with two weeks of time."

"You.." his scarred face twisted as his lips pulled into a grin. "You clever bloody bitch. You stole his goddamned omni-tool, right from under Vasir's fucking nose."

"After those two weeks," She acted as though he hadn't spoken, "The Blue Suns will find several of their bank accounts drained of funds, and an additional million will be routed to you to pay off your hires. Shortly thereafter, every media station on world will be receiving highly.. sensitive data that will be highly inimical to the long term survival of the Suns. I would advise being far away from your target by then."

He stared at her for a long moment before turning his gaze to me, "You. Kid. She good for her word? You both in this to kill these fucking assholes?"

I nodded, my lips twitching. "If anything, trust our self preservation old man. How long do you think we'd last with that much money on our heads?"

"On Illium?" he cocked his head, his eye going out of focus as he apparently did the math. "Three days past those security girls leaving your door."

My free hand waved vaguely. "Point made then."

He chuckled slowly, bringing his cigar back to his mouth. "Goddamned point made kid."

"Do we have an agreement then?" Nyn's neck tensed slightly as she forced herself to stop displaying her superiority. ""The data for the elimination of both targets?"

"Just one target." His cigar jabbed in her direction. "I don't give a rat's ass about Vosque."

Her lips thinned. "Half a million up front and after."

"Full million after."

I tried not to wince as her hand squeezed mine in anger, but she nodded coolly. "Five hundred thousand and the data up front. One million after, provided that the target is eliminated. Since you have only one target, you have one week from today to accomplish this."

The grizzled mercenary grunted, "He close enough for that time frame to work girlie?"

"It will take two days for you to reach his current location." Her lower eyes narrowed slightly. "From the data I have, he changes locations quite often, so I would advise haste."

"No shit. Bloody bastard's been a coward since I fucking met him, never let me pin him down in one place." Zaeed's eye went a bit distant before he nodded. "I've got a few contacts on world. Give me the cash and the data, and we'll be fucking on our way before the day is out."

She nodded slowly, letting go of my hand as she stood up. A few moments later had her passing the omni-tool and several large denomination credit chits to him. I would have thought that would have been it, but her back stiffened when his gnarled hand grabbed her wrist before she could pull back.

"If this is all bullshit girl, I'm claiming the fucking bounty on you. Just so we're clear."

Her arm twisted as she yanked it free, and when she spoke her voice was cold as ice. "Touch me again, mercenary, and I will rip out your eyes. Just so we're clear."

"Always the eyes with your kind." Something dangerous flicked across his face before his expression turned hungry, staring at the objects she'd handed him. "I'll expect your payment to be prompt."

Whatever patience she'd apparently had was long gone at this point, and she deliberately turned away from him to stare out the window. "You are wasting valuable time mercenary. Both yours and mine. Contact Matriarch Aethyta for the remainder of your payment, and be sure to have proof of his death."

The cigar returned to his mouth as he stomped out, smoke trailing behind him. The Asari guard wrinkled her nose at the smell before nodding politely to me and Nyn, casually slipping out behind him.

"He's gone then?" She asked when the door shut, her body tense. Her fingers were curled around the arm rest on my bed, teal skin growing even lighter as they clenched.

"Yeah."

"By the pillars... No offense, my Harath'krem, but sometimes I loathe your species." her head bowed as it shook slightly. "And that was him trying to be civil. "Aethyta had to threaten him with death to not call me or her... I'm sure you can guess what he was saying."

 _That's just Zaeed being.. well, Zaeed._ "Every species has its assholes." Reaching out I brushed my fingers against her hands, "The guy that put me in this bed, for instance."

She gave me a rueful smile as her upper eyes closed in mild relaxation. "Fair. Do you think this can work?"

"It could."  _It will. He'll kill Santiago if he's bleeding out from a dozen wounds with all of his mercs dead on the ground behind him._ "He was good enough for Vasir."

"He was." she allowed, slowly sitting back into her chair, her eyes all opening and flicking up to my face. "Cieran, if.. this doesn't.. I mean.. we'll have to run."

"Yeah." Warm fingers wrapped around my hand as I closed my eyes, breathing slowly as I tried to work through that.  _Option one.. Nyn's plan works and canon is partially fucked as one of the major mercenary groups collapses. Option two, it doesn't, canon continues on, and we have to get off Illium and live under assumed names somewhere.. if we make it that far. Option three.. something in between, and I have no fucking idea what would happen._

"Aethyta could get us to the Citadel. It won't exactly be safe, but there aren't many other options. I haven't heard anything from my Uncle's contacts on Khar'shan as of yet, and we obviously can't stay here." her lips were twisted as I opened my eyes. "Your own home-world does not allow Batarians without specific visas which are no longer even issued. And going to the Terminus would only end our lives faster."

Her head shook before she lowered it, resting her forehead on my shoulder. "Our hope is in an uncouth mercenary and the greed and anger of Terminus warlords."

"It can work Nyn." I shifted as best I could, trying not to wince as more sore and tired body protested the movement. Once I'd moved I lowered my own head, letting her bury her face in my neck, her warm breath making me sigh as she slowly let go of my hand to wrap her arm around me as gently as she could. "I mean, if they've been cheating Aria or something, I can't imagine her taking that.."

She chuckled. "Already fishing for information, Harath'krem?"

"Maybe." I allowed, my lips curling as hers pressed a soft kiss into my neck.

"Mm. Hypothetically they may have done things to anger such a person, over the course of several years."

"There you go then.." I had to fight back a yawn, "Anything else interesting in there?"

"Yes.." her lips pressed into my skin again, "But it can wait."

"Can it?" Aethtya cut in, and both of us jumped slightly. I hadn't even heard her come into the room, and from the way that Nyn jerked back and around to stare at the Matriarch lounging against the wall she hadn't either. "And seriously. Stop worrying, the both of you. I told you what's going to happen Shaaryak."

Nyn's shook her head slightly, "There is nothing wrong with having back-up plans."

"No," the old Asari tilted her head as she pushed off the wall, clearly favoring her left leg as she limped past Ghai's bed. "But neither of you is going anywhere. I'm your goddess-damned boss, remember?"

I blinked, sharing a quick glance with my Tarath'shan's lower eyes. "I thought that was until this crisis was over."

"That was before Vasir impressed those old bitches on Thessia so much they hauled her home for some very pointed questioning." Aethyta sighed as she settled into her chair, "Shaaryak, I can't officially keep you as an employee, you make more goddess-damned money than I do, but you're a sanctioned contact and resource now. Give you the details about that later. Kean, you're still one of mine."

"Um.." I licked my still dry lips, weakly waving Nyn off when she moved to get me more water. "I sorta have a full time job now, as her Harath'krem."

"Obviously you're not going to be full time kid." Her hands pulled a small flask from her belt and she took a short sip before continuing, "But it'll give you income, and an excuse for me to repay my favor."

"Oh." Nynsi nodded slowly, "Thank you."

My eyes slid between the two of them, "I'm guessing this was already decided?"

Her hand patted mine gently, "Cieran, you need more combat training. I had hoped that T'laria or Ghai would be able to handle that.. but given their injuries, that became impossible. And in either case, we never really had the time. I had hoped that if my plans worked that Aethyta might be able to assist."

"Assist you too Shaaryak." The Matriarch took another short drink. "You're not bad, and I'll admit your a crack shot, but you could use some seasoning."

"I'd be glad to accept if we aren't on the run in a week."

"You won't be."

Nyn and I exchanged another glance before she spoke, "Is there a reason you're so confident?"

She shrugged, "You don't know Massani. That battered human has survived half a dozen fights that should have killed him an everyone else there. He'll drag his target to the deeps with him if he has to, and once that's done your transmission will handle the rest.."

Her voice trailed for a moment before she snorted, shaking her head in disbelief as she regarded us. "Athame's ass. You two are worried that this will work at all. I'm worried that the war you're about to start is going to spiral into Citadel space."

For the second time in as many minutes I felt blindsided. "War?"

"That omni-tool had everything Chacksin would have needed to sell out the Sun's leaders to Aria." She smiled grimly at our expressions. "It had years of data kid, and links to locked data terminals on Omega that I paid a few old friends to hack. Everything they've shorted her on, Tarak's approved plans to eliminate her if she slips up, every double agent they have in her organization, which of the other warlords are being paid in preparation of siding with them instead of with her, and more on top of that. That tattooed bitch is going to lose her mind."

For what felt like the millionth time in the last few moments, I was again at a loss for words. Even Nyn seemed taken aback.

"I.. hadn't thought.." her head shook slowly as she glanced at the pocket where she'd been holding onto the device. "I only gave it a quick overview, looking for what you said Massani needed, and the accounts they were using to fund the True Sons.. He.. he had  _that much_ data?"

"He did." Aethyta shook her head, "Goddess knows what he was going to do with it. My gut says he wasn't as loyal as Serah thought he was."

I mulled on that for a long moment before nodding, "I could see that.. I mean, it would have been stupid of him not to have a back-up plan. So he collects the information he needs, and if shit goes wrong with this he blackmails them to get him and his wife out of the company."

"Or if it worked it would have been extra leverage to elevate himself to replace Tarak or even Serah." Nyn shook her head, "Especially if he modified it to make it seem as if either of them was responsible.."

The Matriarch grunted, her voice low. "Not that it matters. We've got the data and we're going to hammer those dicks with it."

Nyn glanced away from her, her lips twitching as she fought back a smile. "Taking the bounty personally?"

Aethtya might have scowled for a moment, but she quickly smothered it beneath her usually stoic expression. Replacing her flask back on her belt, she rose to her feet with only a slight wince. "Shaaryak, I've got two of my agents in from Nos Irrail. Keep them with you at all times until we hear from Massani. The two outside are going to stick with Kean here. Don't stay out in public longer than you have to, stick to the mansion or this hospital."

It really hit me then that I had a freaking bounty on my head. A giant one. I mean, sure, Chacksin and Yi'ren had sent hit-men after me. But they'd been just run of the mill Blue Suns or other similar types. A half a million credits would attract people more like Than Krios or Zaeed Massani, the kind of men and women who could murder me before I even had a chance to challenge them.

Suddenly the two guards outside hardly seemed sufficient, and I had to resist the urge to tighten my fingers around Nyn's.

For her part, my Tarath'shan nodded slowly, taking the advice for what it was. "I'll have Marn and Chen with me as well, and the rest of my people will rotate through guard tours here. Neither of us will have fewer than four guards at any time, and as soon as I can I'm going to have both Cieran and Ghai transferred to the mansion."

The Matriarch grunted. "Good. I have some details of my own to clear up, but expect to see me tomorrow. Captain Vasir will be here then, we can all bitch about her sister like crying maidens if you like."

"So long as there's something to drink." I shook my head before letting it fall back onto my pillow. "Definitely need drinks."

"Not in your condition." Nyn growled at me, her glare making me shrink a bit further into the bedding. "Not any time soon."

"Yes Tarath'shan."

Aethyta snorted. "Good to know which of you runs the show, not that I'm all that surprised. Oh don't even both glaring Kean, I get all the details out of T'laria."

"Scales.." I groaned as I fought to keep my face from heating up, "I'm going to pummel her."

"Good luck with that." There was a quiet chortle before she turned a way, waving a hand as she limped towards the door. "I'll be in touch kids."

We both quietly bid her goodbye before Nyn made sure that I got more water into me. Once she was sure that I wasn't about to die of dehydration, she quietly excused herself to find us both some food, leaving me with another kiss on the cheek and my thoughts.

_What the hell is going to happen now..?_

The worst of it was that I had no ability to affect what was happening at this point. Zaeed was out there with Santiago's location, Nyn and Aethyta were all set to shred the people who'd put out death-marks on their heads, and the potential to at least moderately change things was definitely in play. And did I really want things to change? I mean, if things did, I wouldn't be able to predict the future as well as I otherwise might have. Hell, it might even bring the Reapers down on us faster, though I was at a loss as to how that might happen.

_Potential is there though. The more things get fucked up, who the hell knows what might happen. And now I've got a week of worrying that some assassin is going to ghost through that door and put a bullet through my skull._

I shuddered slightly, desperately trying not to picture me or Nyn laying broken, just like I'd left Chacksin.

The crack of his skull slamming into the stone wall echoed in my ears, and I had to grind my teeth against the wave of nausea that accompanied it.

I'd killed before, sure. And by and large.. I'd gotten used to it, as much as I didn't like that fact. But I'd never really  _wanted_ to kill someone before. Never  _wanted_ to see the light go out of his eyes as I ended his life.

 _He deserved it. He'd have done far worse to you or Nyn. Just remember that Cieran. He wasn't like those.._ my memory played flashbacks of the treatment plant, of my armor simply crushing the teenage gang members beneath its weight as I slammed through them.  _Stop it. Stop. Thinking._

By the time Nyn came back my hands were tight in the blankets as I breathed slowly and evenly, mentally going through the fixes my armor would need like a mantra.

"Cieran," her smooth voice was calm as she settled a tray with light breakfast foods across my lap, "The True Sons again?"

I nodded slowly, letting out a long exhale. "And your fa.. Chacksin."

The backs of her fingers trailed across my jawline. "He deserved it. As for the others.. as I've told you, my Harath'krem, it was done in battle. You have nothing worth torturing yourself over." There was a quiet chuckle before she leaned in, her forehead resting against mine as my eyes closed. "You remain a far better person than I, and more than deserving of the title I asked my Patriarch to give you. That you still worry over whether or not you are is proof enough of that."

A long sigh escaped me as I felt her skin against mine. "I'll take your word for it, Tarath'shan.. just wish.. heh. I guess Xerol was right, wasn't he?"

"About what?"

"I had thought.. hoped, I guess, that when the True Sons were done with, Chacksin and Yi'ren dead, that things might slow down a bit. Be simpler." I shook my head slightly as my lips twitched. "He told me once that you can never be full up on complicated. Guess this all this is just proving him right."

There was a quiet chuckle, "That may be true, Cieran, but not everything that is complicated is bad."

"Well, yeah, I sup-" Her lips abruptly found mind, firmly shutting me up in an entirely pleasant way. When she pulled back a few moments later, I could only smile and admit that she was entirely correct.

* * *

**End Act III: The Lamentation**

**Date: 9-22-2180 (Five Months, Twenty-Seven Days since Arrival)**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well.. here we are. So very close to the end. Originally there was only one, maybe two chapters of an epilogue, but thinking about it there's a few loose ends to tie up and a few things to lay out for what's coming. Act IV won't be a 'full' twelve-chapter act, more of a mini-act of three, four at the most. The next chapter will take place a few days after this one, with each following chapter taking place further out, with the last one setting up the sequel's start.
> 
> We do finally see Zaeed here, with Nynsi and Aethyta scheming to take out the Blue Suns by chopping the head of the group before siccing Aria and the Eclipse onto them. As you'd expect, succeed or fail this is going to have an impact on canon moving forwards.


	37. The Revelation

**Act IV: Epilogue**

**Date: 09-28-2180 (Six Months, One Day since Arrival)**

* * *

 

Staring into my cup of water, and desperately wishing it was something stronger, I sighed quietly and muttered, "What the hell is going to happen now?"

Shockingly, no one responded. Given the time of night, I'd have been surprised if someone else had been in the kitchen with me. I'd been lucky that Nyn was so overworked trying to deal with everything that was going on that she'd slept right through me slipping out of bed and padding off.

_So here you are now, standing in the kitchens, feeling sorry for yourself._

I scowled at my watery reflection.

It had been eight days since I'd killed Chacksin ul Shaaryak, and things remained tense. Zaeed was due to report in any time now, assuming he was still alive. But until he did.. until he did we were basically living under self-imposed house arrest. Not that living in the place was all that rough, to be fair. We were in a freaking mansion, after all, with a dozen plus lower caste servants that Nyn routinely sent out on errands.

It was more of the threat of the thing. Captain Vasir had lost two of her officers over the last three days to assassins, and Aethyta's people had tracked nearly a dozen known guns-for-hire arriving in the last forty-height hours alone.

_And even if he kills Santiago, so what? Why would Vosque cancel the order? Sure, he'd probably be thrilled at being the sole leader of the Blue Suns, but he'd be a hell of a lot happier if he wasn't about to get attacked by Aria and the Eclipse._

Trena, of all people, had proven instrumental in dealing with the latter. I'm sure there was a long, complicated story behind her familiarity with the local merc group, but I wasn't in any hurry to ask questions. She'd been able to steer a reluctant Nyn through dealing with Sederis.. which had proven to be strangely easy.

I hadn't been there, but according to my Tarath'shan, the Asari had been practically foaming at the mouth at the idea of having to wait until Zaeed succeeded or failed to launch her reprisals. But she'd calmed down almost instantly when Nyn had called in her marker, pointing out that she owed her for saving her from the Blue Suns. Sederis had even complimented her on her skills with her pistols before having some of her commandos escort her back to the relative safety of the mansion.

_The fun of dealing with the unstable I suppose. One moment, total fury, the next, mild amusement._

If anything that was probably turning out to be even better for us. From what little Sederis was giving Nyn, she was prepping for some major strikes into the Terminus, even going so far as intending to personally lead some of the attacks.

_And wouldn't that be interesting to see? Aethyta and Vasir were pretty fucking impressive, wonder what the hell Sederis would be like.. not that I'm going to be fighting anytime soon._

Tossing the last of my water back, I tossed the empty cup into a sink, and tried not to grimace at the motion.

I was healed enough to walk around, but not much more than that. My stomach still felt like someone had used it as a punching bag, and my left arm was again stuck in a sling. In truth I could probably do without the latter, but Nyn wouldn't hear of it. She was determined that I would follow the doctor's recommendations to the letter, which was as annoying to me as it was amusing to Trena.

_Speak of the devil, and she shall appear.._

"Ape." She covered a long yawn with a hand, limping into the kitchen just as I was about to leave it. "What the fuck are you doing up?"

I shrugged. She was in her usual nightwear, meaning pants and a thick band of tight cloth that served as a bra. Which showed off the thick network of scars on her stomach, and I knew there was an even larger set on her back. "Couldn't sleep."

"Speak to the Goddess on that one." her head shook minutely, heading to the fridge. "Ghai wanted some water, caught her trying to get her ass out of bed."

The Doctors hadn't been thrilled to let Ghai out of the hospital to say the least. Her various operations had been successful, but she wasn't in any condition to be up and about even in a limited fashion.

It had been as much of a surprise to me as it was to everyone else that she was even worse of a patient than Trena.

"The alarm work then?"

"It did ape, good work on that. Though I think she knows you were the one who tagged the monitoring equipment, so I'd expect some payback later."

I shrugged, utterly unrepentant. "It's for her own good. I'd have done the same thing to you."

She tossed me a glower as she finished filling up a cup with water.

"It'd be for your own good too."

There might have been a mutter about my parentage, or she could have been saying a prayer to Athame under her breath before her voice raised, "Surprised Shaaryak's letting you walk around unsupervised."

My cheek twitched slightly. "She's still asleep."

"Not terribly safe of you ape."

"I get it scales," I shook my head, "Unless you're at death's door I won't bug any hospital bed you end up in."

She gave a grunt before tossing the pitcher back into the fridge. "Best I'll get I suppose."

"I suppose." I echoed her, easily matching her slow pace as she set off, flicking the lights off as we left the kitchen and entered the dimly lit halls. "In the morning then?"

Her cane thumped quietly. "Walk with me?"

I blinked but shrugged in acceptance. "What's up?"

"You go through that asshole's data?"

My face twisted into a scowl. "You mean the actual information or the ego trip disguised as notes? Because I've done as little as possible with the latter."

"Can't fucking blame you." she admitted, "Bloody nauseating is what it is."

As far as I or anyone else could tell, the actual data we'd snagged had actually been compiled by Yi'ren. She'd apparently started it honestly enough, back when she'd joined the Blue Suns. The first few years were composed of logistics spreadsheets, payrolls, and cost-benefit analysis. She'd even created a report on how to properly adjust the protection money being brought in from businesses on Omega based on their income and popularity. It all seemed to point to her using the data to impress her superiors with her managerial ability, and apparently had worked; she'd gone from being nobody to within Tarak's inner circle inside of ten years.

That had only lasted until she and Chacksin had hooked up. After that point it had taken a decidedly different turn. Troop movements, fleet positioning, systems where Blue Suns ships often discharged their drives, financial records.. everything that an outside force would have needed to hit the Blue Suns where it hurt.

But what still wasn't clear was just what they'd intended on doing with the information. Yi'ren's documentation was concise, well laid out, and made it very clear why she'd been the one picked to act as the de-facto head of the True Suns. But Chacksin's were almost entirely about describing how clever he was for figuring out whatever that particular page was about.

The net result was that I'd taken to entirely ignoring everything he'd written. "Something in there that's not him trying to take credit for his wife's ideas?"

"Yeah, actually." Her cane seemed to hit the ground harder at her next step. "A week after you and Shaaryak started going out, they both apparently received a message from an anonymous source that went into fucking detail about your old life."

"My.. wait." I stopped in place, staring at her. "My  _old_ life? I don't remember having one before the Matri...arch... oh fuck me. Tell me that she didn't.."

"Try to get them specifically pissed off at you so that you'd end up dead?" Trena turned in place, her expression dark. "Can you bloody think of anyone else who'd be able to send a message that they apparently couldn't trace, who knew where you were living and what you were doing, and would have an interest in getting you killed?"

"But why bother making the effort?" Processing what she seemed to be saying was taking a while. "I was doing plenty to get myself killed as it was."

"It also went into how I as the fucking reason that Xerol was," she spat the last word, "Corrupted."

My hand rose up and rubbed furiously at my face. "Do I even want to know what she said about me? Am I the Butcher of Torfan's long lost brother or something?"

Trena grunted, heading for a nearby bench as she spoke. "Close. Corsair here on vacation who fought on Torfan and was decorated for massacring Batarians on several occasions."

I rolled my eyes as she sat. "Yeah. Because covert operatives of a group the Alliance still denies the existence of are allowed to go on vacation to Illium."

"Didn't say it was a smart lie ape, but it would have definitely pointed them at the pair of us. More so than they already would have been anyway." My friend sighed as she leaned back against the wall, "Anyone who's met you knows you aren't what the message tried to make you sound like. I already sent the file to Aethyta, she's yanking it from the data packets she's got setup. Hopefully it won't get out."

"Thanks.." Blowing out a breath, I rocked back on my heels and forced myself to take this slowly and work through it. "All right. So the Matriarch probably sent a message to them with the aim of pointing them at us. Why the hell would she bother?"

"I don't fucking know." She growled, rubbing at her eyes. "Like you said, we were doing a goddess-damned good job of getting ourselves killed without her trying to help it along."

 _Maybe she's just pissed I've gotten so involved in shit. But that doesn't explain why she wants Trena dead, unless she's just tying up loose ends..still._ "Maybe it's something we missed about her. Some plan we fucked up."

"A plan involving mercs and gangs?" I sighed and nodded at her point, and she continued on, cane slowly spinning between her hands. "And I don't think we missed anything. You met her what, twice? I've barely spoken with the old bitch more than that. Got me out of shit eighty years ago, said I owed her. Next time I heard from her was when you showed up, last was a week later to make sure you were adjusting all right."

 _Eighty years.._ That was a long fucking time to hold onto a favor, even for an Asari. "Can't imagine Aethyta was happy to hear that scales."

"Understatement of the century ape." My friend shook her head slowly. "Never seen the old fish so annoyed. She hasn't found anything on her."

My hand ran through my hair, "Nothing about her order either?"

Trena blinked in surprise. "Order? What order?"

It was my turn to regard her in surprise. "Her religious order. She asked me if I knew about it."

"The name, ape. What was the name?"

I grimaced and rifled through my memories before ruefully shaking my head, "She didn't say. Just asked if I was aware of it, like she was expecting me to have the name already or something."

"And why didn't you fucking bring this up before?"

"Because I didn't know you didn't fucking know about it." I shot back. "Seriously, I expected you to have known about it."

Her face twisted into a grimace. "Fair fucking point, not like you knew I've barely spoken with the bitch."

We sat in the dim lighting in silence for a while after that. Her apparently not wanting to say anything further on the subject, and me not wanting to pry into her past.

After a few awkward minutes she sighed, "You want to tell Aethyta about this religious angle? You two have to talk about your condition or whatever anyways right?"

"Already did." I shrugged. "She can try and put my memories back into order in about.. five years, give or take."  _Not that I need her to._

Trena rocked back slightly. "Five years? I thought that shit cleared up after a few months."

"For an Asari or a Krogan, and that's assuming they're getting counseling and crap like that. Humans take longer."

A  _lot_ longer. I had to give it to the Matriarch there. However the hell she'd picked up how to fuck my head up without actually killing me or rendering me brain dead was turning out well for her. And me, I supposed. From what Doctor Seyran had sent us, it was pretty clear that humans didn't react very well to people mind-raping us. Where Salarians took weeks, and Batarians a year or so to recover, humans were up there with Quarians in needing five to six years for our shit to get to the point where a trained mind-counselor could start helping us through the rest of the recovery process.

Which still left us better off than the Drell. The few confirmed cases had almost always resulted in suicide, their eidetic memories combining with the mental damage to cause some pretty vicious breakdowns.

Apparently I could expect to have random migraines in the near future, possibly with some phantom pains to go with, once my mind finished getting over the trauma of what had happened to it. So any time now.. but at least it wasn't something that was going to kill or cripple me.

"Athame's fucking.. bitch knew what she was doing all right." She scowled, fingers twitching as if desperate to grab for her pipe. "Figure whatever she's up to is in that time-frame then? And it's something she doesn't want your or I interfering with."

Like I've said before, there was nothing wrong with Trena's mind once you got it out of the gutter.

_That might be why she wants scales dead.. she assumes I would have tried to tell her by now. Even if I was dead she might affect things she doesn't want changed. But what the fuck can I do about it? Not like I can just reach out to her and say 'hey, I've got enough shit on my plate to even think about going against you to interfere with Shep. Please back the hell off.'_

"Sounds right." I forced myself to sigh, "Come on scales, let's get you back to Ghai before she tries to get up again. We aren't going to figure this shit out in the middle of a hallway in the middle of the fucking night."

"Yeah.." It cost her a small grunt, but she levered herself up all the same. "And don't want Shaaryak to realize you've been out and about all night."

"With my luck she'll find out anyway, and I'll be stuck on that damned couch with Illyan watching me." I scowled at the idea. I'd had enough sitting on my ass in the last few days. "The sooner she lets me work on my armor again the better."

"Can't ague with that ape."

And with that we both drifted apart, heading back to our beds. For my part, our conversation hardly helped, and even when Nyn nuzzled herself closer I remained awake, staring into the darkness.

If I'd have known that Zaeed Massani was landing on planet that morning, I'm not sure if I'd have slept more or less, but at least a few questions would have been answered.

* * *

 

**Author's Fun Fact: How it all Turned out in Canon**

_Since Cieran Kean obviously didn't exist in canon, but I'm making this story as if most of the elements occurred there regardless, figured I should put out a few points to show how things changed. Just to hammer this home some more, Another Realm: Terminus will start to diverge from canon in regards to background events, even if Shepard's ME1 journey may not be all that affected. Assuming I keep going beyond that point, you can expect ME2 to show significant changes, and even larger ones in ME3._

_In the Canon version, Act 1 was only slightly different. Trena was still dragged into the entire affair, and still met Ghai through Xerol. She was not wounded in the first attack, surviving to maintain command through the fight against the True Sons._

_It was Trena who killed Yi'ren, but was badly wounded in the process of doing so. Xerol died as in the story, with Nynsi and Ghai leading the attack against Chacksin. Ny was killed during the fighting, and Ghai wounded. Chacksin was then killed by Tela Vasir, who took his omni-tool and data._

_With Sederis unconscious and still bound, the Spectre was able to take her back to the Citadel in chains, effectively trading the Eclipse's leader in exchange for being excused for her poor performance. The data was then given to the shadow broker, who sold it back it to Santiago for an exorbitant sum._

_With their primary leader in prison, and without Aria's support, the Eclipse could only re-organize and hold to their own territory rather than attempt to punish the Blue Suns._

_Trena and Ghai would eventually recover, and would be on the commando team Aethyta lends to Liara in ME3._

_With no remaining members of the Shaaryak family left, the Hegemony's attempts to make inroads to open trade with the Republics vanished. The family fortune was split amongst the other Highborn families._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you can tell, these aren't going to be full length chapters, merely snapshots of events. Given that, it shouldn't take me that much longer to get them all wrapped up. If I hadn't rewritten this one three times it would have been out days ago, I'm hoping this one strikes the tone I was going for and answers two of the remaining questions.
> 
> For a snapshot of the epilogues, here you go:  
> E1*: The Revelation – “I know what you are” & Floating Mind  
> E2*: The Fallen – Zaeed's Mission & the Blue Suns  
> E3: The Hegemony – Nyn's position, fallout in the terminus  
> E4: The Next Life – Life on Illium  
> *Note, these two will be occurring one after the other. E3 will take place several weeks later. E4 will be some months after that
> 
> Can't say that I've enjoyed the last few months of my life, between moving, tons of shit with work, and a whole lot more that I won't go into.. but I can definitely say that writing this and the reviews I've gotten have done a lot to make my days a bit better.
> 
> Since I can never say it enough, thank you to everyone who has reviewed, favorited, followed, bookmarked, or simply read this story.
> 
> ~ Kat


	38. The Fallen

"I still don't see why Aethyta can't handle this with her own people." I grumbled, wincing a bit I moved my left arm to make sure my tech launcher was firmly in place on my belt. I'd only taken the sling off that morning, and it was still extremely stiff.

Nynsi, in the process of making sure her pistols were both safetied, just shook her head and sighed. "Cieran, you  _are_ one her people, remember?"

I gave her a glower to remind her that I hadn't forgotten, but that I wasn't exactly thrilled about it. We were both wearing dark, casual clothing that did a respectable job of concealing the light armor plates and kinetic weaves worked into it. Not that we were really expecting trouble on this little trip, but it never hurt to be prepared.

Once both of her hand cannons were holstered, she crossed the short distance between us and tugged my shirt slightly. "We go out there. We get our report. We pay them. We leave. Aethyta can handle them after that."

"Right." I blew out a short breath. "Just try not to shoot him when he insults you."

It was her turn to glower, all of her dark eyes narrowing. "Far easier said than done."

Leaning in I gave her lips a gentle peck. "I have faith in your self-control. After all, a highborn Tarath'shan shouldn't lose herself over the insults from a human mercenary. It would be unseemly."

Her lips twitched slightly before she leaned in for a longer kiss, her breath warm when she pulled back. "It would, wouldn't it?"

"It would." Giving a soft sigh I stepped away from her, straightening my back and suppressing another grimace at the motion. The doctor kept assuring me that the soreness should be gone in a few days, and I knew that if I was back where I came from I'd still be bed ridden from my injuries. But that didn't mean it wasn't bloody annoying. "Let's get this done with then."

Truthfully I was both worried and curious as hell, but given that Aethyta hadn't allowed Nyn to bring Chen or Marn's squads with as extra security I was far more worried than curious. I could understand her not wanting more than one Batarian around for this, but I was hardly confident in my combat abilities outside of my armor.

Blowing out a last breath I waited for her to nod in approval before turning towards the door. Moving past the empty kitchen stations and dish racks, I flicked the panel and stepped out into Eternity's bar.

Despite the fact that it was just an hour after dawn, and the place was most assuredly still closed to the public, there were several people waiting for us.

Aethyta was leaning against the bar, as armed and armored as she'd been on our trip to Sederis's mansion. Lounging on chairs and booths around the place were a half a dozen other Asari, all wearing commando leathers and helmets to conceal their faces.

But while none of them reacted to our arrival, the three battered humans all seated at an open table did.

"What the hell is that thing doing here?" One of them snarled, a hand disappearing under the table. His armor was as mismatched as the man's beside him, but he filled far more of it with flesh that was definitely not muscle. And his graying Colonel-Sanders mustache and beard did nothing to conceal the start of a second chin.

"She's our goddamned informant you bloody moron." Zaeed yanked the cigar out of his mouth before grabbing the man's hand and slamming it back on top of the table. "And the reason the three of us are going to be fucking rich. So shut your mouth for now."

The man growled, jerking his hand back. "Never thought you'd defend a bloody squint Massani."

"Shut up Cormak." The third human spoke, her voice low. Her skin was the color of dark coffee, and she looked as if she'd have been extremely attractive about twenty years and as many battles prior. "We're surrounded by commandos, all of us are still wounded, and that's Matriarch fucking Aethyta standing right fucking there. You draw and we'll all be dead before you could pull the trigger."

Cormak, apparently, gave her a glare but settled into his chair without another word.

"Now that you're petty crap is out of the way." Aethyta pushed off from the bar, moving with us as we headed towards the table, "Let's get this over with."

"I quite agree." Nyn murmured, waiting for me to pull her seat out for her before sitting. "Massani."

"Girlie."

Her head cocked slightly to the right. "I expected you to have more people with you."

The broad shoulders rose and fell under his armor, revealing bandaging covering the base of his neck. "I did. These two are the only bloody survivors."

"Fucking suicide run is what is was Zaeed." The woman spoke again, tossing back a bottle Aethyta must have provided before we arrived. "Not that I'm complaining for the pay."

Nyn leaned in slightly as I took my own seat, "You were successful then?"

I hadn't thought someone could grin quite that maniacally, but Zaeed definitely proved me wrong. "I burned that son-of-a-bitch alive in his own shuttle."

"Lost twelve of us doing it." Cormak muttered, his jowls shifting as he shook his head before his voice turned nostalgic. "But that asshole did scream, didn't he?"

"Aethyta?"

The Matriarch shrugged, having not bothered to sit with the rest of us. "They showed me the vid. Was him, and he's very dead."

_Well. That's that then.._ I tried not to slump as what was happening really hit me. Up until now, the idea that we were changing canon, not that Nyn or Aethyta knew that, hadn't felt real. But if the Blue Sun's primary leader was dead four years early.. shit was going to happen that I had no way to predict. And that would cause other things to change, and that would cause more, and so on and so on..  _Not like you're linking up with Shepard at this point anyway Cieran. Just blow out a breath, stick with Nyn, and roll with the punches as best you can._

Nynsi nodded slowly, her fingers intertwining as she regarded the three of them. "Then all that is left is your payment. One million credits, as agreed upon. I assume it will be split between the three of you?"

"Mostly." Zaeed grunted around his cigar, puffing out smoke as he talked. "Six hundred for us, split evenly. Rest is going to death payouts."

"Am I giving that portion to yourself or will you be providing accounts?"

"Old fish here has them already." Aethyta might have twitched slightly, but nodded in acknowledgment. "So let's get this goddamned thing over with."

What followed was fairly quick. Nynsi pulled out several credit chits, using her omni-tool to transfer the requisite numbers to all four of them. Once she had the values confirmed, she pushed them across the table one at a time, giving the fourth to Aethyta. All three mercs did their own checks to confirm that they weren't getting cheated.

Cormak was up and out of his chair the moment his payment went through his own omni-tool, not saying another word as he stomped out.

Zaeed didn't even glance at the woman next to him, just palming her another credit chit. Her lips tugged into a grin before she rose, a hand already on her shotgun as she smoothly glided out after him.

"Fucking idiot." the grizzled mercenary didn't speak until she'd left. "Of all the assholes to survive, had to bloody be him."

Aethyta shook her head as she finally sat, "Takes a special kind of goddess addled idiot to deposit two hundred thousand with people around him like that. You both got his account?"

"Goddamned right we did." he chuckled darkly, "His share will pay off the rest of the death benefits. Speaking of deaths, don't you lot have shit to send out?"

Nyn's lips pulled back to show her teeth, her omni-tool flicking to life to show a dozen in-progress bars. "What's left of the True Sons accounts starting draining onto my own before we started speaking. As for the rest, Aethyta?"

The Matriarch glanced at one of the commandos, who gave her a nod. "Activation signal was sent, data-dumps should be hitting the extranet within the hour."

My Tarath'shan flicked her omni-tool back off and spread her hands, "The Blue Suns will be having their own problems quite shortly."

He gave a snort, sending smoke wreathing out of his nostrils. "Problems? I looked thought hat fucking omni-tool girl, you're about to set the bloody dogs on them. Aria, Sederis, every punk with a grudge and a gun in the goddamned Terminus is going to be gunning for them."

"And the Traverse." I pointed out. "Vosque's main base is there. If he's got any shot of holding anything at all, it would be there."

"Not fucking likely. He's the moron that executed old Dom'serah." Zaeed's cracked lips curled into another feral grin. "And without old Vido dead he's going to have a bloody rough time getting the funding straight to keep his people paid."

I couldn't stop the bemused smile as I shook my head. "So the Batarians on his ships won't have any love for him, he's far removed from most of the Suns operations, and he won't even be able to pay the ones loyal to him. Sounds like he's fucked."

"Beyond fucked kid." The old mercenary chuckled again. "All that's left is to sit back and watch the goddamned show."

"So long as he removes the bounties." Nyn murmured.

"Don't worry about that shit girlie. Figure he'll be canceling most of the kill orders the Suns have out, save what cash he can." The cigar waved to emphasize his point, "He'd have mutinies on half his fucking ships if he paid out a million in cash for offing the old fish there instead of giving out hazard pay."

Aethyta rolled her eyes, "Nice to know you think they could take me. Acting like I'm some punk maiden too stupid to keep her barriers up outside a fight."

For a second Zaeed's tone was almost warm. "Too fucking long since I worked with a professional like you, you old fish."

"Call me that again and I'll never serve you another drink. And don't even think of starting Kean."

"I would never." I protested. When both she and Nyn gave me looks of pure disbelief I just sighed and shook my head, which made my Tarath'shan pat my arm affectionately before turning back to squarely face Zaeed.

"Is there any other business to discuss?"

"No." He pushed himself back without a wince, though the muscles on his neck noticeably tightened as he stood up. "Your data was good girl. Normally I wouldn't want anything more to do with one of your kind, but I suppose I owe you or some shit for letting me kill that asshole. You need anyone else killed, I'll see if my bloody schedule's open."

She seemed to contemplate that for a long moment before nodding slightly, "I don't quite care for you Massani, but you accomplished your mission promptly. I will keep you in mind if I have further work of this kind."

He gave her the tiniest of nods in return, gave Aethyta a deeper one, then stomped his way out, smoke trailing behind him the entire way.

"Well.. he was practically cordial." Nynsi shook her head as he departed, her upper eyes narrowed in thought as she glanced at Aethtya with her lowers.

"He just killed someone he's wanted dead for a long time girl." The Matriarch shrugged, "Don't expect that to last if you hire him again."

"Let's hope that I have no need to." she seemed to contemplate the door he'd left through, pausing for a long moment before speaking again. "Do you agree with his assessment of the Sun's chances?"

"He might be an asshole girl, but he's not a wrong one. Vosque is probably already drowning just trying to take control. Tarak sure as shit wouldn't bow his head to him, not after he killed Serah." Aethyta chuckled darkly, "Even without the crap we're about to throw out there, there would probably be a civil war between the two of them."

"Good." I muttered. I'd seen enough of what the Suns were like, both in game and now in my actual life to not feel any sympathy at all for what they had coming. "The sooner this bounty shit is over with the happier I'll be."

"Speak from the Pillars Cieran." Nyn gave me a small smile and squeezed my forearm. "I think we'd all enjoy that."

Aethyta merely nodded. "Death marks are annoying shit, almost forgotten just how much. You kids run along back to the mansion now."

My Tarath'shan nodded and started to rise before she paused. "It is a rather long journey to back to Khar'shan minor, Aethyta. And I can't help but think that there might be breaking news on the networks before we could make the return trip."

I made a show of nodding in support, "There is a very large screen here, and all those drinks.. seems a shame not to put them to use, don't you think?"

The Matriarch gave us both long looks before her lips curled, a barking laugh coming out. "I suppose the bar can stay closed for a few more hours. You girls go ahead and get your helmets off, help yourselves to the drinks."

A bit of excited murmuring broke out between the commandos, a few double checking that the doors were locked and sealed before they relaxed.

"You can have  _one_ drink Cieran."

"Just one?"

Her lower eyes flicked over me, "Don't give me that look. Just one."

"Don't worry kid, I got you." Aethyta had already slipped behind the bar, and made a show of pulling out the largest glass she had. "Your usual?"

Nyn gave a muted growl that subsided when I kissed her cheek and wrapped an arm around her waist, "Of course. Come along, my Tarath'shan. Just think of all the crap that's about to happen to the people who tried to kill us."

She regarded me for a long moment before a small grin tugged at her mouth, and she allowed me to guide her to the bar.

Eighty minutes later found a human, a Batarian, and seven Asari cheering wildly inside of Eternity as every news station on planet broke to flash coverage as chaos erupted in the Terminus systems.

* * *

_**Author's Fun Fact: The Traverse** _

_In the ME games, it's mentioned that the Traverse is technically council space, but in reality the place is largely lawless if you are anywhere beyond the Alliance's control. I'm taking that and running with it for what's coming in the future._

_I'm also adding another pair of prime relay chains to connect Batarian space to various locations. One would connect them to the Citadel itself, while the other leads to the Traverse by way of the outer rim of the galaxy. As it is, every map I've seen shows that the Batarians could only make it to the Citadel through human controlled space.. which makes no sense at all given that they were space faring centuries before humanity and had an embassy on the Citadel. This is probably just because there isn't any missions that allow you to actually explore the Hegemony, but still leaves me with room to put in new things._

_This will also have the side effect of adding a few new new star clusters to play around with, though expect existing ones to crop up as the next story happens._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next up is Epilogue 3: The Hegemony
> 
> So much easier to get out short chapters like this, though it helped that this was basically just a quick rewrite of one of the versions of E-1. So here we found that Zaeed was able to hire his own team with Nyn's money, and promptly lose almost all of them killing Santiago, something that hardly seems to trouble him. Apart from that, just a few little moments between Cieran and Nyn, and we're ready to roll into the next epilogue, which will take place approximately two weeks after this one.
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	39. The Hegemony

"Harath'krem, are you ready?" Nynsi Shaaryak would have looked perfectly calm if I hadn't known her as well as I did.

"Nyn," My lips twitched as I gently reached out, wrapping my fingers around her wrists. "Calm down."

All of her eyes narrowed slightly, but she gave me a single nod before expelling a long breath through her teeth. "I'm that obvious?"

"Ghai might have noticed, but probably only us." Giving her a soft squeeze before letting go, I backed away to take in her full appearance again. She was wearing a formal white suit the clung rather pleasantly to her strong form, supplemented by a half-cape that just barely avoided brushing the ground as she moved. Her usual weapons had been cleaned, polished, and were openly displayed on her belt.

Overall.. it left her looking very much like Xerol might have.

My own appearance was equally as uptight, something I wasn't exactly happy about, but given what we were about to deal with, I admitted the necessity. She'd approved of the black silk I'd worn to the Pillars Day gala what felt like a lifetime ago, and even allowed me to wear my Talonfists jersey, saying it gave me character. And the sub-machine gun and tech mine launcher on my own belt made it clear what my role was anyways.

"I still wish I could have pushed this out farther." she murmured, "You'd have set a more.. severe tone in your armor."

I chuckled before adjusting my belt a bit, "Still another week before I even try to get it moving. With all of the improvements scales and I are trying to make.."

"I know." her lips twitched. "You've spoken of little else these past two weeks."

"That's not entirely true, I compliment your appearance daily."

Her grin turned sultry. "And nightly."

"And nightly." I agreed, only a bit of heat moving to my cheeks. "But I don't believe that thinking about that would help you concentrate."

"No.." Nynsi seemed to sigh slightly before nodding. "All right. Remember to stay two steps behind me and on my left."

My head dipped as I nodded, moving into the correct place before she squared her shoulders and walked into the conference room. It had been heavily reconfigured for this event, the table and chairs removed entirely. Thirteen projectors had been setup along the walls, with one prominently set into the far wall from the door while the other six were divided evenly on the left and right.

I had no idea how expensive it was to set up real-time communications between Illium and Khar'shan, but Nyn had assured me that this was not something even she could afford to do at will. Even better, no one was sure how stable the connection would even be, given that it was being bounced through the Terminus, across the Traverse, and only then into Batarian space.

"Illyan, the connection?"

The tall, burly Asari glanced at her readouts before nodding. "Ready whenever you are ma'am."

"Then you may depart, and tell your team that I am impressed by how quickly they were able to set this up." Which was basically Nyn's code for I'm-giving-them-a-bonus.

Illyan gave her a a grin and a polite tilt of her head to the left before departing.

After a quick glance to make sure I was standing in the right spot, she whistled out a final breath before flicking her omni-tool open and initiating the transmission.

There was a brief burst of static before thirteen Batarian Patriarchs appeared, their three dimensional forms hovering above the various transmitters. Some were standing, others sitting on veritable thrones. Some were smoking, some were drinking, but all were wearing clothes that screamed cost and expense.

The form directly in front of us resolved into a heavyset form reclining on a chair, hands contentedly resting on his stretched belt. " _Ah, Acting-Family Head Nynsi Shaaryak, and your Harath'krem. You're early."_

Nynsi politely inclined her head to the left, "It seemed prudent, given the state of the communications buoys between here and the Hegemony."

" _Quite so."_ He inclined his head, shifting is slightly to the left to politely accept her reasoning. " _Well. We have our quorum then, so let us begin. From everything that I have heard, we largely have you to thank for the chaos that has engulfed the Terminus and portions of the Traverse these past two weeks."_

"I take kidnapping attempts and bounties upon my life rather poorly, High Patriarch."

" _And your wounded pride was enough to derail a decade's worth of planning!"_ The speaker was tall and rail-thin, his face unusually pinched for a Batarian. " _Do you have any idea of what you disrupted?"_

" _Get off your damned Pillar."_ Someone else growled, " _It was a stupid damned plan to begin with, and the ul Shaaryak's were planning on betraying us anyway. You've all seen the data. You'd have tried to control the Suns and gotten half our fleet obliterated when they sold us out to Santiago or Aria."_

The annoying one spoke again, " _And what assurances do we have that the data wasn't falsified?"_

Nyn's back stiffened. "I suppose that you know better than Aria T'loak, Patriarch? The information was sufficient for her to decapitate Captain Tarak and display his head in her lounge."

" _That doesn't mean-"_

 _"Close your damned mouth."_ The High Patriarch snapped. " _She was within her rights as a highborn clan head, even as a female. None of you would have allowed such an insult to pass beneath your eyes without acting, and don't you dare insinuate otherwise."_

"Thank, you High Patriarch." Nyn inclined her head politely, dipping it further to the left.

" _You are a clan head, Shaaryak. Even as an acting one you have your power, I would not see it infringed to protect a fool's ego."_ His upper eyes definitely seemed to bore into the slender mans's head, making him flinch a bit into his chair.  _"Now, as far as the incidents regarding the Ul Shaaryaks. First, speaking on their attempt to enroll you in an engagement, Patriarch Balak."_

I tried not to flinch at the name, instead grinding my teeth and cursing the universe out for hating me. Of course her mysterious suitor would have been Balak. Anyone else would have been to fucking easy on us.

" _My grandson admits to being both furious and distraught over this entire affair."_ A positively ancient Patriarch croaked out from his screen, both of his left eyes rheumy and more white than black, and I was surprised his leathery skin wasn't cracking with each word he managed to get out. " _He was led to believe by the exiles that not only was then-Heiress Shaaryak aware of the engagement, but that she actively supported it, and that Xerol Shaaryak was preventing her from reaching out to him."_

Which sounded very much like Nyn's parents.

" _Can you confirm this is incorrect?"_ The High Patriarch sounded as though he knew the question was a mere formality.

"I can." Nynsi minutely shook her head. "I had no knowledge of this supposed engagement until receiving threats from the exiles. If I had known of Commander Balak's involvement I would have entreated my Uncle to politely inform him of the truth, and to tactfully dismiss his interest."

" _As honorable and beautiful as a pillar of glass in the deserts."_ Balak seemed to struggle to tilt his head politely, and I found myself reluctantly liking the old creature. His words weren't lecherous in the slightest, sounding more like a tired old man trying to still act according to his station. " _I both wish to reassure you that it was not our interest to falsely pursue you, and his father has been chastised for his role. Ka'hairal in particular wishes to formally apologize, though that must wait until circumstances allow."_

My Tarath'shan tilted her head politely in return. "I would be pleased to meet him, though I do not foresee my position changing."

" _It will have to."_ I felt my cheek twitch as the 'annoying one' spoke again. " _Until you have a male-"_

 _"You will not interrupt me, or anyone else present again,"_ Balak growled, the sound far deeper than I expected from his withered frame. " _Or my Harath'krem will remind you why I am still his Krantt."_

The other Patriarch flinched and clutched at the armrests to his throne, the motions drawing murmured jeers from his fellows. It took him several moments to cover the very real fear that had appeared on his face, and I found my respect for the eldest Balak going up a bit more.

" _The circumstances may be changing sooner than you think."_ The High Patriarch smothered his own smile, and from the way he shifted I could picture his hands contentedly rubbing together. " _The chaos in the Terminus systems is giving us an opportunity that I do not think we can afford to pass up."_

Balak, and most of the rest, nodded in approval.

" _The human's Alliance and their allies on the Citadel have threatened war if we continue trying to take our rightful place in the Verge."_ Several glanced at me, as if waiting for me to react to that. I didn't see the point. The Alliance was hardly my government, after all, and there was nothing on an Earth of the future that particularly interested me. Everyone and everything that I'd come to care about in the last six and a half months was on Illium, as much as I still hated the bloody planet. " _And we have wasted years and millions of credits attempting to force them out by alternative means. Now, an alternative approach is available to us."_

" _My grandson agrees."_ Balak croaked out, taking a moment to sip water with a shaking hand before continuing, " _He, and several other promising officers, are presenting their plans to the Council of Warriors as we speak. They have already proven it to be possible by conducting scouting operations into the Traverse to confirm Lady Shaaryak's data."_

Some of the other Patriarchs bristled at the word 'Lady', but remained silent when the High Patriarch used both sets of eyes to stare them down in turn.

" _And were they able to do so?"_ One of the few young Patriarchs spoke, arms as thick as my neck crossing his chest.

" _They were, and were also able to confirm what the SIU has reported. Vosque is pulling in all of the forces loyal to him into the Traverse, intending to safeguard a kingdom for himself."_ Balak's lips pulled into a weak grin. " _My sources on the Citadel say the human ambassador is already shouting to the heavens about the danger to his precious colonies in that region."_

 _"As well he should be."_ Another Patriarch puffed on his pipe as he spoke around it, " _Vosque would need to size the Nubian Expanse and the Shadow Sea to block them from attacking his core territory. If my memory serves me, they have promising colonies in the latter, even if they don't accept the Alliance as their government yet."_

 _"Semantics."_ The High Patriarch grunted. " _Their corporations would ensure action. And the Council would goad them into action to prevent him from becoming the next Aria T'loak."_

 _"Which would lead to the Alliance flooding into the Traverse."_ Balak apparently agreed, his croaky voice firm. " _This cannot be allowed, nor can we allow this Vosque to block the primary relay connecting us to the Terminus. Aria is our primary source of element zero thanks to the embargo, he would be sure to apply tariffs beyond our ability to pay."_

 _"Point of order, if I may?"_ Everyone glanced at who I was sure was the youngest family head present, looking even younger than Xerol had been. " _Is this the time and place for this discussion? I mean.. there is a human present, Harath'krem or no. And why involve Shaaryak at all?"_

"My family is one of the eldest of Khar'shan." Nyn's voice was firm. "Though I am a female, it is my right to sit on a session of the Patriarch's Council. And as for my Harath'krem, his title places him beyond reproof. Do not bother lying to me and saying that you all don't have your own in the rooms with you."

" _Well said Shaaryak."_ The body-builder tilted his head politely to the left, " _I see that old Xerol didn't skimp on his lessons."_

"He did not."

The objector seemed uncomfortable but nodded all the same, " _Then we intend to support the Council of Warrior's position, the Hegemony will go to war?"_

 _"That is the discussion we must hold."_ The High Patriarch grunted, his fingers flexing slightly before he intertwined them. " _But regardless of your right to be here, Shaaryak, I cannot imagine the cost worth the hours I'm expecting this to take. Let us instead move onto the second item regarding your place on Illium. Your Uncle was asked to remain on that world in order to facilitate the opening of trade between the Hegemony and the Republics if at all possible. How badly did the exiles damage that endeavor?"_

Nyn made a slight show of considering the question for a long moment, drawing her hands behind her back, before speaking, "I would say that they did no harm to chances of trade with Illium itself. In the days before his death, my Uncle made significant progress in persuading members of the Executive Board that it was Batarian blood being shed to prevent open war on their world. I intend to use that as much as I am able to open at least limited trade."

There was a grunt. " _Then I see no reason for you to risk returning to Khar'shan. Have you named an heir?"_

Her fingers tightened slightly, "There are no male members of the family within two degrees of my line. I am in the process of denoting which assets would be split amongst the third degree family members should I die."

" _And they are all on Khar'shan itself?"_

"Yes."

Another grunt. " _And of course there are no other highborn available on that world to court you, or any that are not exiles in the Terminus. If at all possible I would therefore request that you remain safe and secured for the duration of this conflict."_

" _I agree."_ Balak had to take another sip from whatever he was drinking before he could go on. " _The Shaaryak's control a great degree of resources on Khar'shan, though you are not here to manage them. Our economy is in a weak enough shape without the chaos diverging your interests would cause."_

I had to suppress a smile as Nyn lied through her teeth. "I shall endeavor to do so."

 _"Good._ " The High Patriarch glanced at something away from his projection before nodding again. " _Then I have only a single request to make of you. Assuming that the Balak-plan passes both this body and the Council of Warriors, your position on Illium may be needed as somewhere Hegemony agents could recover and recuperate after actions in the Terminus."_

I wanted to roll my eyes. A request from the High Patriarch was anything but a request, it was all but an order. He wasn't the official head of the Hegemony, there wasn't one, but he basically shared that position with the High Admiral, their relative powers waxing and waning as the various caste councils and clan heads shifted their politics between the two men.

"I shall keep several rooms open and the servants ready to receive them." Nyn inclined her head politely. "If you could keep me informed of your deliberations, I shall do the same in regards to my own with the Board."

The High Patriarch gave her another nod before the connection cut out.

"Well." I breathed out quietly. "That could have been worse."

She grimaced as she turned back to me. "Even the talk of courting?"

"Massani did say he's open for hire."

"Don't tempt me." my Tarath'shan growled. "And now we might have SIU agents stopping by to 'rest'." The last word was practically spat out, indicting just how much rest she thought they would be getting on world.

It was my turn to grimace and nod. "I'll talk to Marn about stepping up the hiring and vetting."

"Reach out to Aethyta as well. I didn't want to lean on her, but at this point.. a few out of work commandos would hardly be remiss." she blew out a breath, "The sooner our security forces have been rebuilt the better. Supporting my people's government is all well and good, but I will not allow them to control me."

_And there's the woman I'm in love with._

"Aethyta will be by tomorrow for my first training session, I can do it then." I moved as I spoke, stepping up beside her and sliding my arm around her waist in the familiar motion. "But for now, I think you could do with some wine."

There was an almost lustful groan at that. "Tell them to leave the bottle."

"Of course."

* * *

_**Author's Fun Fact: The Hegemony Government II** _

_Just for a bit more detail on the Batarian government. As I said before, the lion's share of the power rests in two distinct groups; The Council of Warriors, and the Council of Patriarchs._

_The first is made up of the top generals and admirals, and is currently lead by High Admiral Retheran Del'Thran. From an external perspective, he is the de-facto chief of state of the Hegemony, controlling the military forces of the Batarian nation. His only rival is the High Patriarch, Rul Thortyaan, who maintains his own power through the management of the Batarian economy._

_There are four other high-caste councils ( in reverse order of power; Labor, Artisans, Science, Merchants) that nominally have some say in the Hegemony's direction, but in practice they do not cross either the High Admiral or High Patriarch._

_The High Admirals' rise to power is a more recent event, the warrior's council having been subordinate to the Patriarch's council until roughly sixty years prior. It was then that middle-caste commanders, unhappy at their position in society, were able to elevate several of their own onto the warriors' council. This caused a cascading effect over the following decades, until the military was largely dominated by the lower-castes who did not answer to established Patriarchs._

_The military is the only place in the caste system where a meritocracy can be seen, which makes it highly beloved by the middle and lower castes, giving the High Admiral far more public support than the High Patriarch enjoys. The only things preventing a true coup d'etat are centuries of tradition and the acceptance that any attempt to overthrow the high-caste would completely tear apart Batarian society._

* * *

_**Author's Fun Fact II: Batarian Castes** _

_Batarian society is broken down twice. First by 'level', second by the general 'caste'._

_There are five main castes, sorted by their traditional power level: Merchants, Warriors, Scientists, Artisans, Laborers._

_Each caste is then divided into levels; Slaves, Lowborn, Mid-Caste, Highborn._

_A Batarian family, such as the Shaaryaks, are always of a single level, even if the castes may differ. For example; Nyn and Xerol would be Highborn Merchants, where her cousins Re'hat and Che'hat were Highborn Warriors._

_Migration between castes is allowed, but very rare, as it requires approval of both of the relevant councils. When Re'hat and Che'hat petitioned to become warriors rather than merchants, they needed the approval of their Patriarch (Xerol's grandfather), the warrior's council (which put them through several training scenarios to make sure they were capable), and the merchant's council (which was glad to see them go). Naturally, it is far easier to Highborn to shift in this way compared to the other castes, who are usually locked in from birth until death unless they can show extreme skill in their desired position._

_To move between levels is even rarer. A family can be risen, or demoted, but it requires approval from the Patriarch's council. They are understandably loathe to create many precedents in either direction, with only two families moved from lowborn to middle-caste since the formation of the Hegemony, and a handful of demotions taking place, only one of which was a highborn family (who had been caught attempting to murder every member of a rival clan)._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next up is Epilogue 4: The Next Life
> 
> So. Can't remember who called Balak being the suitor, but there you go :). A bit of insight into the Batarian government's position on all this, as well as what they expect of Nyn now. The last two chapters haven't really had much to do with Cieran, but the next one will be far more focused on him.
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	40. The Next Life

I sat in the darkness of Nyn's chambers, my hands cradled beneath my chin as I watched the news.

 _"_ _The wars against the Blue Suns mercenary company continue to rage through the Terminus and the Attican Traverse, the conflict now into its third month."_ The news anchor was one of my favorites, totally lacking the Thessian drawl that so many of her fellows seemed to adore, and tried to actually remain impartial as she covered the various stories. _"_ _Much of the fighting in the nearby Terminus is slowing as in-fighting between the various warlords over the spoils of war can now be said to be in full swing, with Aria largely allowing her subordinates to do as they wish, despite the Eclipse attempting to keep the pressure on their rivals. This has eased the pressure on the Blue Suns to some degree, and the question has become how long that will continue."_

She glanced down at the tablet that probably contained her own notes before continuing, _"_ _The same cannot be said of the conflict in the Traverse. The entry of the Batarian Hegemony, likely seeking to ensure that their primary trade routes with Aria remains open, remains controversial within the Citadel Council. The Systems Alliance continues to push for even more severe trade penalties, and even for military action as the Batarians continue to advance. We speak to our own Matriarch Sera, our Citadel analyst on this. Sera?"_

 _"May the goddess watch over you T'Rael,"_ The Matriarch that smoothly slid into the chair beside the anchor was a strange Asari in that she actually looked old _. "_ _In regards to the conflict in the Traverse, I do not find it strange that the Citadel is reluctant to interfere. The Hegemony, so far, has limited their attacks to systems known to be controlled by mercenary and pirate groups, and is openly avoiding the nominally independent human colonies."_

 _"Does the Citadel not claim that the Traverse is within their sphere of influence?"_ The anchor frowned slightly _._

 _"_ _They do. However, while the Citadel may have named the skyllian verge an area of human interest, that does not pertain to the entirety of the Traverse, despite what the human ambassador may wish to claim."_ The Matriarch shook her head _, "_ _By their own laws, they have no basis for action. Even if new laws were drafted and passed, there is no stomach for a war over territory so far from inner-council space."_

"Hardly surprising." Nyn's voice interjected, my hand rising to mute the screen almost at once. "Though I do wish that you would wake me if you cannot sleep."

My head shook slightly. "I didn't want to bother you."

"Cieran, this is the second time this week." She appeared in the corner of my eye, the red of her kimono-like robe barely covering anything, not that I minded that part. "The nightmares again?"

"No, those have mostly stopped." Thank whoever is up there. "Migraines again."

She settled onto the couch beside me, the cool fabric of her robe and warm heat of her skin contrasting nicely against my bare chest. "Did you take the painkillers?"

"I did." I assured her, sighing contentedly as she rested her head on my shoulder. "Just couldn't fall back to sleep afterword. I know you have to meet with the Board again today, and given how fun those events tend to be, I didn't want to wake you."

"My Harath'krem is far more important to me than some hoary old Asari." Lips pressed against my neck, and I found my right hand drifting down to trail over her flexing abs. "You will awaken me next time, understood?"

I tilted my head left and down a bit to show submission before raising it. "Yes ma'am."

There was a quite sigh that left my skin tingling before she spoke again, "How has your training been going?"

"You've been there for most of it." I pointed out, as my left hand rose to run through my now short-cropped hair. Aethyta had been firm in me cutting it down to less than an inch, not that I'd complained. I was sick of dealing with long hair, even if Nyn had admitted she preferred it long. Apparently it made me more exotic or something. "I'm no longer a totally useless flopping fish, instead I'm.."

"..merely a useless fish." She chuckled, "I know. What about your armored training? I miss those sessions."

I made her twitch as I brushed a ticklish spot on her side, "Better. I'm 'good enough to beat up maidens who spend too much time shaking their asses' when I'm in it. The upgrades are working out, especially the new engine and leg actuators."

"Good." she covered up a yawn by simply pressing her mouth against my neck before pulling back, "Anything happen on the news?"

"Warlords are starting to duke it out over the territory." I shook my head, "Sounds like the Suns are going to try and rally at Korlus if their captains can stop their own infighting. Hegemony is still pounding them in the Traverse though."

"Mmm." Another yawn. "I'm sure Balak's son is insufferable right now."

I'd yet to meet or speak with Ka'harial Balak, which I was pretty thankful for. Regrettably, Nyn and I had both met his father by communicator, who managed to combine his son's anti-human attitude with none of Patriarch Balak's gruff style. Though I had at least got to see my Tarath'shan threaten to castrate him if he disrespected me, and by extension her, any further. Which had led to Patriarch Balak actually sending us a top-of-the-line engine for my power armor and Nyn a brow circlet made of pure crystal by way of apology for his son's lack of manners

"Well at least we don't have to deal with him on a daily basis." I muttered. "Shouldn't be more than a few more months before the Suns are done in."

She gave a little shrug before stretching her legs out, arcing her belly against my hand to let me feel all of her muscles flexing. "Not that they matter to us anymore."

I had to take a deep breath to calm my arousal a bit. "Don't you need to start getting ready for the day?"

"I do.." her tone was regretful as she placed a final kiss on my neck before pulling back a bit, giving me only the briefest glimpse of the cartilaginous plating that protected her sternum and collarbones, along with.. other portions of her body before pulling her robe shut. "As do you. Perhaps if you had woken me earlier.."

"I get it, I get it." I sighed, "I'll be sure to do next time."

There was a quiet chuckle as she rose from the couch. "So long as you do so."

Letting my eyes linger a bit as she moved away, I eventually heaved myself up and followed her to the bedroom to get ready for the day. The showers that followed were quick and regretfully absent of any carnal pursuits, the pair of us going through the familiar motions. After making plans to meet up for lunch whenever she was done with the board, I left her rooms, shaking my head at the sight of someone already waiting for me just outside of them.

"Ghai kicked you out again?"

Trena held up her tea in salute, "Hardly, she got us both up to get shit ready for out little plan."

My lips twitched as I fell into step beside her. She was moving better these days, even if she still relied on her cane a bit. I didn't have to slow down nearly as much, which was something. "I take it she's distracting Chen and his cronies then?"

"Got that right." Her grin turned positively vulpine. "Cocky asshole needs to get taken down a few pegs."

"Who are we using?"

"Rane'li. She needs more seasoning leading, so let her boss you around a bit."

I grunted in acknowledgment, smiling only a bit as we kept walking.

"Sure Aethyta's giving you the day off? Normally she's throwing you around like a bloody rag right now."

"I'm sure. One of her daughters is on planet and is dragging her to a biotic art gala or something." I shrugged. "I didn't really bother asking past that."

"Art.. Athame's tits I'd pay to see her trying to act all uptight and shit at that."

I chuckled as we entered the garage, already starting to get noisy as the mansion's staff got to work for the day. "Maybe next time we'll find someone to tail them."

"I don't know anyone I hate enough to let her beat the crap out of them for trying."

"Me either. Something to keep in mind though. An option." I made a beeline to where a lowborn servant was handing out small subs to Rane'li's team. They didn't have much on them besides some deli meats, but that was typical of Batarian breakfast food. Tilting my head a bit to the right but nodding in thanks, I snagged a two as he deferentially tilted his own to the left. Handing one off to Trena, we both started wolfing them down as quickly as we could.

"Cieran." The young squad leader glanced over, still seeming a bit uncomfortable with her recent promotion. I couldn't really blame her. Six months ago she'd been a back-up fighter, Xerol's communications specialist who only had grabbed a gun because we'd needed everyone who knew how to use one. Then again, six months ago I'd been having nightmares about my first kill and still trying to understand what the hell was happening to my life.

"Rane'li." I held up what was left of my sandwich by way of greeting, ""Ready to kick Chen's fat ass?"

Her squad, composed entirely of lowborn females, glanced at one another uncertainty, their heads bowed a bit because of me. Which wasn't exactly something I was comfortable with, but there wasn't much I could do about it either. To them, I was Nynsi Shaaryak's Harath'krem, the alien who'd killed Chacksin and Yi'ren in stories that had quickly grown exaggerated thanks to Trena and Chen. They had no idea how close of calls those fights had been, or how fucking lucky I'd been to simply survive, forget killing those two. Still, that Rane'li dared call me by my first name had practically made her a legend in their eyes, which she at least had the good sense to use as much as she could to get her people's confidence up.

"No offense human," she spoke over several of her people gasping, "But he's got a lot more experience than we do. I was planning on headhunting him, then forting up and letting the rest wash against us like waves in a flood."

Trena snorted, "Nice local slang girl, and it's not a shitty plan. But you'll need to change it, you just got reinforcements."

"Oh?"

A blue fist hit my shoulder hard enough to make me wince and curse Ghai for letting her start working out again. "You get the ape today. Already got his armor locked and loaded with training gear, figure out how to use him."

I held up a hand before she could speak again, "You're doing three runs today. The first you get me fully operational. Second, I'm damaged and you've got to extract me. Third, I'm down and you've got to hold them off until scales here says the shuttle arrived."

She nodded slowly, but there was still a smile tugging at her face. "Does Chen know?"

Trena chuckled. "He knows the objectives are a straight up fight, an escort, and over-running an LZ. Surprise is yours if you can use it."

"How long do we have?"

"Thirty minutes to plan your shit, then get your asses out there to meet with Chen. Once you're both set I'll send the ape out."

"Ok.. ok, you lot, get over here and listen up." Rane'li motioned for her women to follow her, all six of them visibly more excited and confident than they'd been just a few minutes ago.

As she started to speak, Trena and I drifted away, heading towards the stand holding my armor up.

"How's it feel to be famous?" She muttered just loudly enough not to be heard over Illyan shouting at her mechanics as they worked on the shuttle, her sister squeaking an apology as she dropped something heavy.

"Uncomfortable." I admitted, "Scales.. fuck. How long ago was it I was your pathetic assistant?"

"You still are my pathetic assistant."

It was my turn to deck her on the shoulder, which made her rock a bit. "Fuck ape! Aethyta's making you lift too?"

"Every other day. And you dodged the question."

She sighed. "I know. Too damned long ago. Shit's complicated these days."

"At least we aren't fighting anymore."

"For now." Her head shook slightly. "Just.. ever get that feeling, that some big shit is going to happen soon? And there isn't crap you can do about it? I got that feeling right before you showed up. And lately.. fuck, I've been getting it again, these last couple days."

I gave my friend a serious glance as we slowed to a stop, the blocky, boxy form of my exoskeleton looming in front us. "That why you can't sleep?"

"Even if Ghai and I go at it two or three times." she admitted. "Or even if Illyan joins us.. Fuck, it just feels like we're in a hurricane ape. We weathered the first half and we're sitting in the eye, but the rest of the fucking storm is about to hit."

I stared at my armor for a long moment, the thick plating freshly painted in a deep black. The image of a mounted chevalier dominated the left half of the torso, his lance lowered in full charge. It had been Nyn's idea, after I'd gotten her to read a bit about medieval Europe. My own contribution was lettering in an ancient Batarian script down each arm and leg, detailing verses of the Harath'krem's code to protect and serve his Tarath'shan. I'd thought about letting Trena had something, and promptly changed my mind after taking about five seconds to think about it. It was still all harsh angles, with too thick legs and gangly arms, but it didn't look like something we'd dragged out of a scrapyard anymore.

If more shit was about to happen, I was a hell of a lot more ready now than I had been when the Matriarch had yanked my ass here.

_All the same.. I want to hope that she's wrong.. if I wasn't worried about the same crap._

"Well scales," Reaching out I rapped the armor with a closed fist, trying to sound more confident than I felt. "I suppose if more assholes are on their way, we'll just have to deal with them too, won't we?"

She grunted. "Of course we fucking will. I'm just.. fuck, these kids Shaaryak's got me training, I don't know if they're ready."

"Then let's stop bitching like maidens and go kick their asses until they are."

She gave me a long look before her lips pulled back into a grin. "Drinks tonight says Chen takes two out of three."

"I'll take that action." Stretching my arm out I gave her a light punch on the shoulder that she reciprocated, "We'll lose one out of three. Make the loser pay for drinks if it's a full spread either way?"

"Deal. Now get in that bloody thing and let's get to fucking work."

Nodding, I reached out, my hands wrapping around the cold plates as I set out to do just that.

It wasn't the perfect life. I had to deal with slaves and drug deals, and sometimes Nynsi and I got into fights over what I thought was right compared to what she thought made the best business sense. And occasionally Trena and I would snap at one another, disagreeing on equipment or training methods. But I still loved Nynsi Shaaryak, and Trena T'laria had become a better friend than any I'd had back on Earth, and at the end of each day we still laughed and drank together despite our problems.

It wasn't the perfect life, but it was sure as hell mine. If the Matriarch, or Balak, or the Blue Suns, or anyone wanted to fuck with it, I'd do my damnedest to defend it.

And when you have a suit of powered armor weighing in at nearly a ton, when you're getting beaten into shape by an Asari Matriarch, and your lover essentially owned a large city.. your damnedest can go a long fucking way.

* * *

__**End - Another Realm: Arrival** _ _

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So. Three months, three hundred and ninety five pages, and one hundred and ninety-two thousand words later... here we are. I honestly wasn't sure how well this story would work, given the number of self-inserts in the ME verse, and was just hoping to get something out there that let me work on my first person perspective before I moved on to work on something else. To say that the number of reviews, favorites, follows, and views surprised me is an understatement, and I can only offer my thanks to everyone who has done so.
> 
> I can't give any kind of timeline right now for when the sequel will be posted. I'm hoping to get a Beta reader for that, and probably to take a short break from Cieran Kean's head for a while, so it may be anywhere from a few weeks to months before you get the alerts saying that I've posted a new story. Or, you know, I could get impatient and just launch into it like I did with Semper Furor, you never know :)
> 
> I want to again thank everyone who has reviewed this story, I honestly can't do that enough. Every review helped inspire me to keep going, to make this story more than a simple exercise, to let me go off of my original outline to make something that I think is even better than what I had planned.
> 
> Semper Victoria,
> 
> Katkiller V


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